L.L.Bean

Two in the morning. Friday night. The four of you have been to a movie, then to a party, but now you're bored. You've wandered through the Square, but every place is closed except Tommy's and The Tasty; and you're sick of those. Harvard is soooo small.

As wanderlust hits, your roommate suggests you go for a ride in his car. On the spur of the moment, the four of you hop into the car and head northward to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.

Nowhere is Freeport, Maine. Until barely three years ago, Freeport was a sleepy New England town, a spot on a map just off the interstate with a post office, a gas station, and an ice cream store on Main Street. At that time, the town's only distinguishing feature was a world famous mail order company--the nation's only L.L. Bean store.

Today, however, Freeport has become a discount shopper's mecca.

In the early days, most travelers ventured to Freeport only to shop at Bean's. If outdoorsy families wanted to buy a tent, a kayak, moose hunting equipment or a just a pair of duck shoes, they piled in the station wagon and made the road trip through Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Freeport.

But to New England college students, the pilgrimage to Freeport is now fast becoming the weekend equivalent of Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale.

All kinds of students--from die-hard preppies to rugged mountain climbers, and from the merely curious to the nomadic--have made the three-hour trip north from Boston. Many choose the wee hours of the morning for the scenic drive and find Bean's open and doing business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Store hours haven't changed since 1951. There aren't even locks on the doors.

Some students voyage northward during the day to escape the winter doldrums and view the pine tree-filled beaches characteristic of the Maine scenery. Others have friends at Bowdoin College, just half an hour up the interstate in Brunswick. Quite a few unite the twin attractions of a road trip and shopping spree.

There are, of course, the less obvious reasons. "It's the beef jerky if you really want to know," says one student traveler, who bought several packages of the meaty delicacy last weekend before leaving the store.

For students with hectic academic schedules, a clothing and outdoors version of Store 24 is a real convenience. "I don't really have a lot of time to do a lot of Christmas shopping, so I can get something for everyone," says a student from Bradford College in Bradford, Mass.

At the Harraseeket Inn, a lodging just down the street from Bean's, acting manager Penny Gray describes it differently. "They buy a tent, but what they really buy is a [rugged] state of mind."

Bargain Hunting

A state of mind isn't the only commodity available in Freeport. Although Bean's is the only store open all night long, the town now boasts a daytime line-up that might make even Manhattan proud.

In the last three years an explosion of outlets has turned Main Street into a name-brand heaven. For those inclined toward dapper preppiness, Polo-Ralph Lauren has opened a factory outlet which sells at drastic discounts. Hathaway shirts, Bass shoes--and its competitors Dexter and Timberland--also have joined the crowd. Even London Fog raincoats can be bought in this once-sleepy village. For those interested in kitchenware or furniture, there are Corning Designs and Dansk.

Benetton has followed with a sweater store, although it sells clothing at full price. A few of the local salts at Benetton claim that Perry Ellis and Sergio Valente may also open stores soon.

Just about the only refuge for local people left on Main Street (U.S. Route 1) is Deering's Ice Cream Store, where any tourist can be assured of meeting genuine citizens of Freeport.

Hungry visitors usually patronize Freeport's version of fastfood fare: McDonald's. There are no familiar arches in this two-century-old Yankee village, however; the town wouldn't tolerate America's most famous golden trademarks. Instead, a century old, black and white New England clapboard has been converted into the only McDonald's in the country with polished oak tables and primative American art. The building is colonial, but the food is McDonald's standard fare.

Bargains Galore

The outlet stores, including one corner of Bean's, sell slightly defective merchandise that sell quickly at considerably reduced prices.

Except for Benetton, which is not a factory store, regular prices can be as much as 40 percent below the standard retail price. Women's boots at Dexter Shoes were selling for 50 percent off, and a pair of standard penny loafers, which normally go for $79, were on sale for $54.99 because there were nicks so small that the cashier had to show them to one curious shopper.

The Polo-Ralph Lauren outlet sells men's suits that are regularly $595 for $319.99 and women's sweaters that retail for $108 for $74.99.

In the part of Bean's that is its factory store, $76 hunting shoes go for $50, a $42 sweater for $25, and a $36 shirt for $27. But the prices don't seem to be what attract college students to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.

This pilgrimage phenomenon is known to Freeport natives and store employees alike. "I think it becomes a mark of distinction to be able to say, 'I was in L.L. Bean at 2:30 in the morning,'" says D. Kilt Andrew, L.L. Bean's manager for public affairs.

"We used to do that, get really trashed and go to Bean's," says a former college students who is now working at Benetton, just down the street form Bean's.

"Juan's drunk," one Bradford College student said about a friend who was wandering through Bean's at two in the morning. "He's not only drunk; he's high," says another friend.

"Coffee is free to all customers after midnight," says Jeff Baker who sits behind the desk at the front door. If customers wish to sleep in their cars in the parking lot, the employees will let them, he says.

In the fall, which is the slack season for tourism, only about 20 to 60 people come in each night after midnight. "The main reason we're open is because the store has to be cleaned anyway," says Bob Litchfield, a Bean's employee. He adds that Bean's had not closed its doors since one night back in 1951. After that, L.L. Bean himself made the decision to keep the store open all night.

Ever since 1912 when Leon L. Bean did a mail out to every Maine hunting license holder to sell hunting boots, Bean's has been selling outdoor gear in Freeport. The soles peeled off of ninety of his first 100 pairs of now ubiquitous duck boots, according to company lore and advertising, and he gave the buyers back their money.

The original Bean store has been expanded considerably in the last three years to include a large room with canoes and kayaks hanging in racks and a pond with live Brook Trout--Salvelinus Fontinalis according to the sign.

In the parking lot Jaguars with New York plates sit side by side with Maine pick-ups. In the store itself, however, most of the big purchases seem to be made by urban residents rather than farmers and trappers. "These city people sure like things organized," one customer says in an unmistakable New England twang.

How to Get There

If stir-craziness is the incentive to go to Bean's, gasoline is the fuel. "We use our parents' gas credit card," explains Boston College student Michelle A. Leone. She and three friends left Boston early in the afternoon and drove up Route IA, which runs along the Atlantic coast, she says. They stopped at Benetton, where they spent $71.40, before heading to Bean's.

Route IA is the slow way to get to Freeport from Boston, but it's also the most scenic.

The quick way is to go Kirkland street-Parkway-Interstate 93-Interstate 95 until you see the Freeport exit.

Beware the police, though, especially near the toll booths at the Maine-New Hampshire border. Twenty-miles-per-hour's worth of indiscretion costs $44 in the Granite State as a few too-intrepid drivers find out.

Gas for the round trip should run around $17.