That doesn't seem like it should be possible even of the worker's coop sucked. You learn something new every day. I'm gonna look that up.
Edit: edited it so it sounds less like im accusing you of lying and more like im confused by this new fact.
Edit 2: Ah. REI is(/was? It's not entirely clear) apparently a consumer coop. Something like the British Coop stores or Coop Norden in Scandinavia. The customers are meant to own a share.