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Austin W Hogan
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 03:05 am |
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I visited LLBean yesterday, and had my first look at the new hunting and fishing section. The old h&f building about 50 yards from the "Flagship" buildng is now the outlet for returned orders.
The new h&f is attached to the "Flagship" building through the shoe department. Hunting is on the Ground Floor, Fishing on the second. The area is decorated with items from various old catalogs, and displays of Mr Bean's, tackle, and guns.
There is a large a center stairway connecting the two floors, with a little reading lounge and fireplace on a small mezzanine. Beside the fireplace is Mr Bean's Parker, with a very interesting description of the gun. Mr Bean lost sight in his right eye around 1920. Parker built him a gun that was not sinestral, but had sufficient cast to shoot right handed and left eyed. It is a heavy 32 inch twenty gauge, choked for waterfowl. Mr Bean ordered this for minimum recoil, as he feared losing his left eye sight as well. It is worth a trip to Freeport to see it.
Best, Austin
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 04:56 am |
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I'm stunned that they'd ever admit to actual hunting in that store anymore. My guess is that's awful shocking to the Yuppie folks who are their main customers today. I think we discussed this on here before but I love to beat a dead horse.
Destry
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 09:59 am |
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Right Destry! That is why we were relegated to do our shopping in a seperate building about seven years ago. They thought they knew which side their bread was buttered on but now, with Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops encroaching of L. L.'s turf they have made a corporate decision that they don't want to lose us after all so they added this new two-floor wing fast and furiously because they saw the light ... they can't afford to lose us after all. I only wish so much of the stuff they sell wasn't made offshore. Many decades ago everything they carried was made in the good old USA and you could always depend on American quality. My daughter and her husband stopped there yesterday on the way home from ice-fishing at our place on the lake. They too, were quite impressed with L. L.'s new huntin' and fishin' store. I'll get up there in a couple of weeks.
Someone bought L. L.'s sixteen bore Parker at Julia's auction last spring when the Czar's Parker was auctioned. I wonder who bought it?? Anyone know?
Last edited on Mon Feb 18th, 2008 10:08 am by Dean Romig
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Allan H. Swanson
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 11:41 am |
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| Dean : Herschel Chadick purchased the gun from the Julia auction . Allan
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Jay Gardner
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 01:29 pm |
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LL Bean is a great company to do business with and I hope they continue to serve hunters and fisherman for many years to come. Everytime I see an advertisement for Eddie Bauer I think of the goods they used to sell.
I have never been disappointed by products I have purchased from Bean or from the pre-sale/post-sale service I have received from the company. Unfortunately, I don't know of any company that is not off-shoring their manufacturing or OEM'ing goods made by other companies off-shore.
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Weathered corn, an apple left unnoticed on the tree, the crunch of frosted stubble underfoot, wood smoke in the evening - these things remind me of the wild, fall days of boyhood...the best of those days were the Saturday's, afield with my dad.
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 02:21 pm |
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Jay, I agree with everything you have stated but it is a little sad how things change.
Dean
Thanks Allan for that information.
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Jay Gardner
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 06:26 pm |
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Dean,
I still have the pair of LL Bean boots my father purchased from them in the late 40's - well worn and beyond redemption, they sit by the door in my office to remind me of him every day. I still wear the pair of Bean boots he bought for me in 1973 when we visited the store on a family vacation. (although my ankles don't like them any more) I remember walking through the store that was mostly wooden shelving - certainly not as "customer friendly" as the current stores. Even after 3-4 sets of bottoms they show 35-years of honest wear. I doubt I could ever get that out of a boot bought today.
I also remember my mom and dad orderd for me my first down coat from Bean for Christmas in 1977. When the coat did not arrive we called - they were in the process of evacuating the store for fear the roof was going to fall in from the heavy snow.
I wish we could buy goods from stores owned and operated by the same people who made the goods they sell but unfortunately, they are few and far between. A few years ago I bought a pair of Iverson show shoes made by Iverson in the upper pennsula of Michigan. ( I also purchased a beautiful trout net from them). The snow shoes and net were hand made from scratch in a converted old garage by local folks. Like so many other small companies, they closed their doors early in 2006.
I have no problem, paying a premium for goods like my snowshoes. But not everyone feels the same way. I am sure you and many others who haunt this forum feel the same way.
JDG
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Weathered corn, an apple left unnoticed on the tree, the crunch of frosted stubble underfoot, wood smoke in the evening - these things remind me of the wild, fall days of boyhood...the best of those days were the Saturday's, afield with my dad.
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Allan H. Swanson
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 07:07 pm |
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May I make a suggestion --everyone should read "L.L.Bean The Making of an American Icon " by Leon Gorman --Chairman,former President ,and Grandson of L.L.Bean Allan
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 08:58 pm |
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Allan, several people have recommended that book and for whatever reason I just haven't bought it yet. I will do it now. I want to know more about L. L. Bean and his enterprise and how it progressed. I guess being a New Englander, I really should educate myself on this stuff.
My Bean's Maine Hunting Shoes were about ten or twelve years old and had already gone back once for new rubbers. My new Lab pup, Tobie, got ahold of them and chewed a big hunk out of the tongue of the left boot. I sent the boots back a few years later for another new set of rubbers and they came back with a beautifully stitched leather patch on the tongue in the original shape. Whoever did the repair to the tongue must have been a dog person because they chose not to replace the tongue but to leave evidence that a playful little puppy had been there once. We had to put Tobie down last December. I hope those leather uppers never wear out, I would sure miss wearing them.
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 09:17 pm |
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Sad but true as far as being able to buy American made goods these days.
Even Filson has started selling overseas made products since the buyout two years ago. They were the last one pretty much, sad to see it happen even to them.
My guess is in a few years they'll have moved it all over to China just like everybody else.
Even my beloved BSA has moved everything overseas. Sad when you can't buy a uniform shirt for the Boy Scouts of America that doesn't have a tag that says Made in China.
Destry
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John Dallas
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 09:25 pm |
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There's another unauthorized LL Bean biography. Can't rememberthe name - loaned my copy to someone and it's never come back. I suspect it's not as flattering as the "Authorized" version.
I also have nothing but good things to say about Bean. Still wearing their hippers on my duck shoots. After 40 years they are still going strong.
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 09:31 pm |
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You've got a pair of rubber hip boots that have lasted 40 years? That's got to be a record for any brand!
DLH
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John Dallas
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 09:41 pm |
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| It's true - and, oh, by the way, they are stored next to that bad old ozone-producing furnace
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Allan H. Swanson
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Posted: Mon Feb 18th, 2008 11:30 pm |
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| Dean : Don't bother buying a copy -- I'll send an extra copy that I have to you in the mail . Your Vermont friend from . Allan
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Tue Feb 19th, 2008 01:20 am |
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There's just something about Vermonters I really like.
Thanks Allan, Your - wishes he wasn't a flatlander - friend, Dean
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Destry Hoffard
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Posted: Tue Feb 19th, 2008 03:22 am |
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John,
You should post a picture of those old beasts. A classic piece of shooting wear if I ever heard of one. You've got my old cap beat a mile.
Destry
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Kevin McCormack
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Posted: Tue Feb 19th, 2008 01:03 pm |
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| I well remember clumping up the old wooden stairs at Bean's in the middle of the night in October 1969 to buy my non-resident license for my first New England woodcock safari. The 1930's atmosphere was unescapable. When I visited it again years later, convoys of tour busses disgorged blue-hairs on walkers who swarmed over the town like ants, picking through the designer outerwear made in Sri Lanka for "roughing it." What a sight that was! Although they haven't totally whored out to fashion in the manner of Eddie Bauer, I fear they're not far from it. Gave up my Maine Hunting Shoes years ago for Muck Boots and have never looked back. The "non-slip chain tread" on the rubber bottoms put me on my kiester many a time and the things were colder than a welldigger's posterior in Juno in January. Previous posters are right; Bass Pro, Cabela's and the other mega-box stores are strangling them.
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John Dallas
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Posted: Tue Feb 19th, 2008 01:48 pm |
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I walked up those old stairs in 1960, while on a college tour of places like Bates, Bowdoin and Colby. Bought my first Bean Boots on that trip.
Destry - The pix will have to wait - I am in Florida, and the hippers are in Michigan
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Allan H. Swanson
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Posted: Wed Feb 20th, 2008 02:28 pm |
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| Dean : Mailed your copy of the L.L.Bean book yesterday . Allan
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Richard Flanders
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Posted: Wed Feb 20th, 2008 06:58 pm |
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There is also an equivalent Eddie Bauer biography that is a great read. His family came to the US from Russia in 1879 and stayed. He worked in a Seattle sporting goods store, learned the ropes then opened his own shop. I got a copy from the company after I sent them a very nice little 1952 EB catalog I found in my grandmothers filing cabinet and sent it to them for their collection. I got a $50 gift certificate and the book in the mail in return. Amazingly enough I couldn't find a single thing in their online catalog that I had a whit of use for so I gave the gift cert away to the Russian wife of a geolgist friend here in Fairbanks. I do love my 16" Beaners for working in 'not too swampy' country. Once your ankles strengthen up they are about as comfortable as it gets.
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