"You're a 'Beaner' now"

Those were the words of welcome from the HR person who hired me in September as one of the many seasonal employees that work at LL Bean in Maine during the holiday "peak" (between Sept/Oct and December). LL Bean is an institution of sorts in Maine, and it seems many locals work seasonally at Bean at one time or another.

Bean's "flagship" store is located in Freeport, Maine (about 20 minutes north of Portland) and is the only one of it's kind in the world. The flagship store actually consists of a "campus" of buildings in addition to the main building - specialty wings devoted to hunting, camping, biking, etc. The stores are open 24/7 every day of the year -- they don't even have locks on the doors (actually I think the door handles are canoe paddles).

In addition to the flagship store, Bean's warehouse and returns facilities and outlet are located in Freeport as well. There are also call centers, other outlets and a host of other Bean facilities around Maine. I work as a "picker" at Bean's new "Order Fulfillment Center" (warehouse) in Freeport, a 650,000 square-foot center with the capacity to process 27 million items per year.
I was amazed to find out that ALL orders, whether from catalog, online or for other stores comes through the Freeport facility. Pretty amazing considering Bean is now a 1.5 Billion dollar business that sends merchandise to customers all over the world. Pickers locate and pick the merchandise in the warehouse and then send it for gift boxing, monogramming or altering if the customer has requested that -- otherwise we send the items right to the packers for packing and shipping.

I've never worked in a warehouse environment before, so I'm finding it very interesting and educational. We work 3 shifts a day 24/7 (I work 1st shift 5am - 1:30pm). I chose this position because it's one of the most physical positions Bean has - pickers walk several miles a day and do lots of bending, climbing, squatting and we're just always on the move. If you're interested, it works something like this:

Pickers walk around the warehouse and "pick" the items for customer orders from the warehouse shelves. This involves pushing a "hopper" - sort of like a big shopping cart with an attached ladder that allows us to reach the higher shelves. For each item to be picked, we first find that item's location in the warehouse, then we match the information on the pick sticker to ensure we have the right SKU, size and color. Then we match this against the vendor label to be sure that's correct also. And finally, we verify the size on the hang tag (the little tag that tends to stick up at the back of your neck) to be sure it's correct as well. If an item passes all of these "tests" - then in the hopper it goes! Bean is VERY devoted to customer service and accuracy, so our required goal is making only one error in 5,000 items picked. And we have production expectations too - we should be able to pick 230 items in 1 hour (again, with only 1 error in 5,000 items). Daunting, but apparently doable since there are pickers who meet this goal every day. I'll have to get back to you about whether I'm able to become one of them. :)

The position doesn't pay very much (pickers make about $10/hour starting seasonal), but the culture at Bean makes it a great place to work. The emphasis is on mutual respect, exemplary customer service, and of course the Bean tradition of a respect of nature and general love of the outdoors. We also receive a healthy discount on Bean merchandise and free use of outdoor equipment like canoes, kayaks and ski equipment. But the real perk is the e-store (employee store). This is where various "non-resalable" merchandise goes and is made available to employees at prices that make Filene's Basement look expensive. On a given day you might find a $60 backpack for 50 cents, a lined winter field coat for $6, pants at five for a dollar, and so on. It's amazing.

So if you find yourself in Maine in the fall and looking for employment, check out LL Bean!