Although I've been a customer of L.L. Bean going back several decades, I've never visited one of the company's outlets or retail stores. My first purchase, a pair of duck boots, was made from one of the company's catalogs. In recent years, I've gone online to get what I needed on Bean's website. But the family-owned company thinks it can drive more business by opening stores, so one of these days I'll take a trip to see if the L.L. Bean experience is as great in-person as it is online and in print.
Bean, which currently operates 26 stores, plans to add four more locations this year and will continue adding new ones until it gets up to "at least 100" over the next five years, according to a memo written by the company's president and CEO Chris McCormick.
The planned store expansion is part of Bean's omnichannel strategy, according to company spokesperson Mac McKeever. "Folks who may only know us from the catalogs and Internet get to see us in 3-D," he told the Bangor Daily News.
Store locations, according to Mr. McKeever, will serve as purchase pick-up points for shoppers and also as the site of L.L. Bean's Outdoor Discovery schools. The family-owned company posted an increase in revenues of seven percent last year.
