Almost two years ago, L.L. Bean began to move investments from infrastructure and staffing to prospecting and advertising. The results are just now coming in

By Reported Donna Loyle

CS: Your product values and quality really are exceptional. How do you do it so consistently?

Fuller: From a merchandising perspective, I think people would be very surprised at how much product testing we do, stretching fabrics, checking seams and so on. You can’t believe the hurdles our merchants have to jump over to get product approved for sale by Bean. We have to uphold those lifetime guarantees on every product we offer.