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Black Friday has earned a reputation as a celebration of greed and commercialism, but one local business is taking a different approach.

Rick Shone of Wilderness Supply, a downtown store catering to lovers of the outdoors, told 680 CJOB he’s bucking the Black Friday trend by shutting his doors and instead doing charity work with his staff.

Rick Shone.

“Ever since Black Friday started to become a thing in Canada, none of our staff really enjoyed it,” he said. “None of us felt like coming up with the crazy Black Friday deals and participating in that frenzy.

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“When one of my staff had the idea to close the doors and go to help one of the missions in our community, it just felt so right and we jumped on the idea.” Tweet This

Shone and a group of Wilderness Supply employees are headed to the Main Street Project Friday to help with their clothing projects.

READ MORE: Winnipeggers line up for Black Friday deals

He said that while closing on one of the busiest shopping days of the year may not be the best decision from a business standpoint, he feels good about spending a commercial holiday helping others, and that Wilderness Supply’s customers have been very supportive.

“We sent a message out to our customers letting them know we were going to be closed today, and I was overwhelmed,” he said. “I’ve had hundreds of comments and emails.

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“To me, it just tells me that people are really kind of tired of the crazy deals and over-commercialization right now.” Tweet This

Wilderness Supply is also running an in-store program where they will donate a pair of wool socks to the Main Street Project for every three pairs purchased.

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