For the last few years, L.L. Bean has been acting like a company about to either a) be sold, or b) go public. I believe they have sought to increase short term revenue and PR, at, again in my opinion, the cost of good will and quality.
However, I have been hearing more specific rumors of late of the first option. Is there anything to this? Is L.L. Bean being sold? Or is it just the rumor mill working overtime?
14 comments:
Muffy - Did L.L. Bean ever respond to you about the poll you did, where 95% of readers said L.L. Bean was on the wrong track? I would imagine that any company that was planning long term would respond very seriously to over one thousand votes and over 150 passionate comments voicing their concerns, rather than focusing on their boot-mobile and other outsourced-PR fluff.
@Anonymous 12:41 - No they did not, which I thought was odd, as I know for a fact that it was widely distributed throughout the L.L. Bean offices.
Hello Mrs. Aldrich,
I don't have any inside information. But almost certainly the answer is yes, a sale or IPO is on the horizon. Here's why I think so. There are two kinds of companies:
A) Those that care about making a terrific product and then find a way to make a profit.
B) Those that care about making a profit and may or may not make a terrific product. (Usually they make junk, of course, because excellence is inefficient.)
Over the past decade or so, L. L. Bean has clearly moved from being a company of Type A to a company of Type B. And since the current owners have sacrificed everything in the pursuit of money, the way to make the most money is to cash out. So, I predict they will do it soon: sell the company either to a conglomerate (as did Lands' End and Banana Republic) or to the public (as did Ralph Lauren and Tiffany).
Free shipping is a great way of building revenue at the expense of profit. And cheap construction is a great way of building profit at the expense of customer loyalty.
This is a very troubling post, but not unexpected.
Sounds like one of those rumors that everyone involved denies vehemently, few "in the know" take seriously...then turns out to be true. Just has that feel to it. I'm afraid that if either alternative happens, LLB will = A&F, nothing to it of value.
Their Bootmobile is absolutely hideous!
If one uses Lands' End as an example of what went terribly wrong AFTER being sold (where SEARS destroyed what was once a great and unique product line), then I think the rumors of an LL Bean sale are probably bass-ackwards. As everyone who reads this blog knows, as well as many thousands more who patronize Bean know as well, the company has forsaken Leon Leonwood Bean's original vision in pursuit of a quick buck.
Another reason for this is Barack Obama's insistence that the wealthy pay more and more taxes and in this case, INHERITANCE taxes. Given the ANTI-BUSINESS climate of the current regime, as well as a natural propensity to take the money and run, is it any surprise that these rumors have surfaced or, that they may in fact be true?
I stopped buying from Lands' End AFTER they were sold to SEARS. Should Bean be sold or go public, you may see the same thing among their other loyal customers, but on a far larger scale.
I hadn't heard about this, but to tell you the truth, I sort of gave up on L.L. Bean a long time ago, so whether they are being sold or not doesn't matter to me.
The dilema is that I still haven't found a replacement for Beans "old" quality, so I just keep counting on my "old" stuff to carry me through.
To somewhat echo Cranky Yankee, this is startling.
Obviously they've been going in the wrong direction for awhile, but I continued to shop there somewhat out of nostaligia and because it's local (I grew up very close to Freeport) and members of the Bean family have had close ties with my alma mater, Bowdoin College. It's also been a generous local employer. L.L. Bean is still a large employer but it used to employ a lot more people in manufacturing (for instance, shoes) too. (They even used to use real store employees as the models in their catalogs!)
But if L.L. Bean is sold, it will just be another giant foreign (perhaps meaning out of state) retailer with shops in Maine. All that will be left is some loose association with the "idea" of Maine. I'll have no reason to shop there.
Oh, but I kind of like the Bootmobile. It's so ridiculous it's funny and a bit endearing. Sort of like the Weinermobile (which I happened upon in a parking lot in Madison, WI.)
Dear Muffy:
I've only recently started buying from them in the last six years ( after turning 30) and even have their credit card. During this brief time I have noticed a steady decline in quality so much so that I sometimes confuse them while on their website, and in their style, with the ( awful) Gap chain.
Alas, buying simple, quality clothes has increasingly become a chore, and an expensive one at that.
w.g.
Well, now, it's been a long time since I bought anything of really great quality because I can't really afford it. Even this message is being written on borrowed time. Be that as it may be, I was in the LL Bean store in Tyson's Corner, VA, but bought nothing. I already have more stuff from there than I'll ever wear out. Same with Land's End, which, as far as I'm concerned, still has pretty good stuff. But I didn't buy anything at Brooks Brothers either. Frankly, that's out of my class.
Remember what they taught you in business school? The object of a company is to increase the wealth of the residual owner. By that standard, WalMart is supremely successful. But I have since found out that the real number one rule for a corporation is this: to stay in business.
sigh...all this frustrates me so much. And I know that no matter what happens, skilled American labor is going to get the shaft. And, as a corollary, so will quality products.
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