How LL Bean Violates the Spirit of Not Selling Guns

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
How LL Bean Violates the Spirit of Not Selling Guns

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L.L. Bean said it will not sell rifles or ammunition. That is not the entire story. It still sells rifle cases and scopes. The distinction may be a fine one, but it shows how a retailer can continue to make money on guns.

L.L. Bean management tweeted:

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On its website, L.L. Bean still lists a “Maine Guide Waxed-Canvas Scoped Rifle Case,” a “Swarovski Z6 Rifle Scope, Plex 2-12×50” for $1,769.00, a “Swarovski Z3 Rifle Scope, 3-9×36” for $699 and a “Swarovski Z6 Rifle Scope, Plex 1.7-10×42” for $1,639.00. All come with free shipping.

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L.L. Bean’s decision to sell these items shows how a retailer can dodge the loss of revenue when it announces it will not sell guns. The retailer loses its revenue from rifles and ammunition but keeps a portion of the revenue that comes in from people who want to carry or enhance the ability of their rifles to be accurate. Granted, none of these accessories work on assault rifles. But L.L. Bean has violated the “spirit” of moving out of the gun business altogether.

Will L.L. Bean be forced out of the rifle accessory business as well? It may want to make that decision before it becomes a flashpoint.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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