L.L. Bean Executive Chairman Shawn Gorman was not pleased to see that his company had been included on the "Grab Your Wallet" boycott list because of board member Linda Bean's public support of Donald Trump. In a statement posted on the company's Facebook page, Gorman explained that Linda Bean is just one of more 50 members of the extended Bean family involved in running the company, and that the company is home to many people of diverse political viewpoints and does not want to endorse any candidate. Gorman called the boycott "misguided" and asked for Grab Your Wallet to please remove the company from the list.
Grab Your Wallet, however, said that they will not remove the company from the boycott list until Linda Bean is ousted from the board.
"Rather than devote their energies to crafting long, carefully constructed PR statements, we recommend L.L. Bean think long and hard about whether or not Linda Bean's continued presence on the board is worth losing the volume of consumers the company will continue to lose for as long as she retains formal ties to the company," Coulter said.
This may be my Maine bias showing, but it seems rather counter-productive to order a boycott of a company that is committed to keeping jobs in the United States and still makes all of its boots in a factory in Maine. L.L. Bean produces quality products, and this boycott demand is dumb.