Bean official website, L.L. Bean was founded by Leon Leonwood Bean in 1912. In 1917 Bean opened his first retail store in Freeport, Maine that is still open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. The store includes a trout pond, coffee shop, kids’ play area, two cafes and 3,500-gallon fish tank. There are also bike, boat, ski and, hunting & fishing sections of the store. L.L. Bean specializes in anything outdoors. One last large attraction is the giant L.L. Bean boot sculpture located outside the store. L.L. Bean extended past Maine in 2000 and now had 22 stores outside vacationland (2015). Old Navy is a fairly new retail store. According the Gap Inc. website, Gap founded Old Navy in 1994 and named it after a bar in Paris. Old Navy has all of your wardrobe “must-have’s” at affordable prices for the whole family. Old Navy takes pride in making the shopping experience fun, and providing clothes for everyone. Old Navy was also the first retailer to reach $1 billion dollars in annual sales in less than four years of operation (2015). Pier 1 Imports sells anything you can find in a home. The company specializes in furniture and at home accessories. Pier 1 started as a single store in San Mateo, California in 1962. By the end of 1985 there were 265 Pier 1 Import stores (2015). Each store specializes in a different product and conducts their businesses in different ways, but each store also has a strong organizational culture that helps them define who they are and …show more content…
The Freeport store with a trout pond especially gives you the feeling of being outdoors in the state of Maine. Before you even walk in the doors you realize that L.L. Bean has something very unique behind their doors. The uniqueness comes from the ginormous Bean Boot sculpture sitting outside. It’s almost impossible to walk by without snapping a photo. But, above all the uniqueness and outdoors feeling the most important vibe you get while visiting L.L Bean is the feeling of trust and how personable it is. L.L. Bean products are guaranteed to last. If a customer is not 100% satisfied then they are allowed to return it, no questions asked. This feeling of trust comes from the ideology of L.L. Bean. According to the L.L. Bean website a customer is not dependent on them, but they are dependent on the customer. L.L. Bean believes that a customer is not someone to argue with because nobody has ever won an argument with a customer. In fact, Lean Bean has a golden rule; “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back for more” (Gorman, 2006). Because of this ideology L.L. Bean has become known for its high customer satisfaction rate. L.L Bean has always been personable with their costumers. Leon Bean would write outdoor tips and product reviews on all of the