Pay top dollar for sure
Actually I don’t find LL Bean prices out of line. In fact some things are EXCELLENT. I bought a Thule bike rack for my 90 Pathfinder back in 91…Bean had the BEST price around. I bought a Coleman camp stove at Bean years ago…their price was lower then Wallmart or KMart. They sell good quality products…and stand behind them 100%. And I mean 100%. Buy a jacket from them…after 20 years of wearing it…if you don’t like it…send it back and they’ll send you a new one.
My wife has a friend who’s daughter worked ( maybe still does) for LLBean in customer relations. After the first week she said to her mom. " You know, I have a college degree and they are paying me good money to resolve, what I thought were conflicts with the customers. You know mom, there are none. "
Bean started opening their other Bean stores (NOT THE OUTLET). But it’s NOTHING compared to the main store (pun intended). That place is HUGE…and NEVER EVER closes. And they have qualified people working in each department (even at 3am on Christmas Day).
Kittery Trading post is a Bean wanna-be. But it is a nice store too. I do a lot of shopping there. Couple of friends of mine buy all their guns from there. It’s funny how they sell guns to people from NH. First you go in…buy the gun…then they meet you at this parking lot over the border in NH (about 3 miles away) and hand you the gun.
LL Bean does a roaring business with the Japanese. They love the merchandise and even taking shipping into account, the products are cheaper that at specialty importers, which in Japan charge an arm and a leg!
In the main store…they have plaques up showing the progress of mail order (now internet sales) over the years. Annual sales are well over $1Billion.
Not too bad for a company that started by refunding 90% of it’s first orders.
LL Bean is the type of company that made the US great. Wish the US car companies were run the same way.
dagosa Senior Grease Monkey
November 22 edited November 22
Actually, a few months ago, Mexico finally passed the USA as the most obese nation in the world. It was in the Mexican news.
@Whitey,the same thing happened with the CRV,I wouldnt even consider owning one now,Subarus have come a long ways,I think some of the base foreign pickups Nissan and Toyota qualify for the “peoples car” catagory-Kevin
Is there a modern day “Peoples Car”? This topic has completely derailed. It has gone from 90% vintage vehicles to LL Bean to obesity in Mexico. It is past my bedtime. I will comment tomorrow.
@sgtrock21–“It has gone from 90% vintage vehicles to LL Bean to obesity in Mexico”. I think the reason for this is that 90% of the posters on this board are vintage people.
But think of these threads as a true round table discussion.
Literally, envision all of us at a bistro or such at a big…round table.
Talking
A dozen of us or so with some comming, some going , and some staying as individual schedules permit.
THOSE kinds of conversations do exactly this.
Morph
Meander
change
return to topic
get heated
agree to disagree
debate
argue
compare notes
etc.
it’s pretty interesting actually.
King Arthur had a round table and things turned out alright I suppose"By Knightfall,the problems didnt seem quite as grave"-Kevin
@Treidaq. "90% of the posters on this board are vintage people"
I resemble that remark. Actually I did a double take…read it first as "village people"
I thought I would have to reply…sorry, I’m now in just the 10%