L.L.Bean will celebrated the grand opening of its new Home store in Freeport, September 12-13.
Festivities kick-off Saturday, September 12, 9:00AM with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and special guest Governor John Baldacci. When the doors open, L.L.Bean will give away gift cards worth up to $500 to the first 500 customers in line. The grand opening festivities continue throughout the entire weekend with free activities for the entire family.
“Our new Home store space will allow our customers a much more interesting shopping experience and different ways to view our new product selection,” said Ken Kacere, L.L.Bean’s senior vice president and general manager of Retail. “The store will bring our catalog offerings to life, and customers will also discover one-of-a-kind hand-made items, a selection of vintage pieces, as well as their favorite L.L.Bean home classics in great new colors.”
L.L.Bean’s new Home store is designed with an old-time general store feel and features unique lighting, tin ceilings and custom fixtures made from locally reclaimed and recycled materials. In the tradition of the historic Flagship store, the new Home store will be open 24 hours every day. L.L.Bean’s popular Ship-to-Store option will be available, allowing customers to ship their on-line orders without charge to the Home store for convenient pick-up.
Habitat for Humanity and Florence House, two non-profit partner organizations, will also be part of the grand opening celebration. Habitat for Humanity is a people-to-people partnership, drawing prospective Habitat families and communities together with volunteers and resources to build affordable housing for families in need. Florence House is a new comprehensive women's facility that will provide permanent and emergency housing for chronically homeless women. On Saturday, September 12, from 10AM – 4PM customers can bid on one-of-a-kind works of art by local artists, using L.L.Bean’s iconic Adirondack chairs as a canvas. Habitat for Humanity will be the beneficiary of this silent auction.
Florence House is seeking help to furnish apartments by providing a wish list from which customers can choose to make donations. For each L.L.Bean item purchased from the list, the company will donate a matching item to the organization.
The Grand Opening Celebration continues all weekend with a Boat and Tote assembly demonstration, antiques appraisals with expert appraiser, Bruce Buxton, taste-testing samples from a variety of top vendors, family fun in Discovery Park with L.L.Bean’s Outdoor Discovery Schools, including a kids’ GPS treasure hunt, and fly-tying lessons. On Saturday, families can join Maine artist, Mary Jo Marquis and friends in the park to create their very own watercolor landscape painting, and renowned author/illustrator Dahlov Ipcar will be on hand to sign copies of Hardscrabble Harvest. Sunday starts with a free Stonewall Kitchen pancake breakfast held from 8 11AM
