It’s been a rough week for L.L. Bean, the catalog company in Freeport, Maine, that has earned a place in the hearts of rugged Northeasterners by selling down-filled robes and parkas to keep them toasty through long winters.
A big ice storm last week brought down thousands of power lines, forcing 50 percent of employees in some departments to miss work. A week later, “Some employees still have no power, their kids are out of school and the pipes are freezing,” spokeswoman Catharine Hartnett said.
Sales at Bean’s giant Freeport store were hurt for the first few days, except in camping, where Coleman stoves, water jugs and head lamps were flying off the shelves, Hartnett said.
Catalog sales, most of which come from outside Maine, weren’t affected except when there weren’t enough operators to answer the phones. But January is usually a slow period anyway, so the financial fallout isn’t devastating.
To cope with the icy crisis, Bean is serving free meals in the company cafeteria, picking up half the cost of employee laundry and making showers available to all.
The company also donated 600 parkas to electrical workers who came from warmer climes to repair the downed power lines.
Now that’s a charitable way to clear out inventory.
Only fools pay retail: Ever wish you could afford those pricey designer outfits featured every month in Vogue magazine? You could if only you were a Vogue editor.
In her January letter to readers, Vogue Editor-in-Chief and fashion doyenne Anna Wintour reveals that her staffers were “shocked to realize how much you, the public, have to pay” for clothes. That’s because Vogue editors “usually buy their outfits at wholesale or a discount” from the same designers they glorify each issue.
We asked Wintour about this practice, which would be strictly prohibited by ethics policies at most news organizations, and she told us, “We don’t look on Vogue as Consumer Reports. We feel we’re celebrating the industry.”
Wintour added that she sees nothing wrong with her editors getting sweet deals on designer duds, because “if we get a discount with Donna or Calvin, it never affects our judgment.” And she compared the ethical situation to doctors receiving discounts on drugs from pharmaceutical companies and casinos giving complimentary rooms to big gamblers.
Wintour’s letter, by the way, is the lead-in to a Vogue article that purports to identify “cheap” spring clothes, such as a $500 linen and silk sheath from Ellen Tracy. The magazine’s idea of “affordable” fashion is a $1,350 dress by Carolina Herrera.
Anna, get a grip. Maybe a strict ethics policy about accepting gifts from sources would help your editors get more in touch with the little people.
More Asia fallout: It’s a given that retailers like growing economies. But 1998 is likely to be a slower growth year for the United States than 1997 was, because of the economic turmoil in Asia, predicts Tim O’Neill, chief economist for Harris Bank/Bank of Montreal.
That’s okay, he believes, because if growth didn’t slow on its own, the Federal Reserve would have stepped in and tightened interest rates anyway. And amid the Asian gloom, there are some bright spots for retailers, O’Neill says.
One big plus: Much U.S. apparel is sourced and manufactured in Asia. With the devaluing of currencies in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, goods made there should be cheaper. Those savings could be passed on in lower apparel prices, which have been held in check anyway for the past several years because of slow consumer demand.
Lower manufacturing costs are especially good news for private-label apparel retailers such as AnnTaylor and Talbots, which have struggled to find a balance of the right fashion and quality at the right price.
The beleaguered U.S. apparel biz will take any break it can get.
