MEC will always make me a bit sad but they didn't keep up with the times, and they had no idea how to deal with a rapidly changing Canada; that diversity bullshit was just their last, desperate gasp.
I remember taking the streetcar to MEC as a kid, I loved just going in that store and browsing. Burning my flyer money on camping shit and bike components, it was fucking heaven.
MEC's problem was they got more expensive while their customers were getting poorer and having to live with less-and-less storage for more-and-more money.
Crappy Tire fucked them over as well, by increasing the quality of the Woods brand which bled off sales from a company that was becoming disconnected with their members. Atmosphere didn't help either.
So squeezed out of the market, what did they do? Did they try to fit the needs of their members better? Of course not, they looked at all of the rich diversity coming into the country and reached out to them instead.
Of course it didn't work. It was never going to work, all they ended up doing was insulting their members and ignoring the idea of bringing in products that they'd purchase.
Pour one out for MEC. A proud Canadian company done in by out-of-touch executives, rapidly-changing cities and rapidly-changing demographics.
Typical.