One of Maine’s Largest Companies Has Announced a Round of Layoffs

One of Maine's largest companies, and arguably its most notable, has announced a round of layoffs due to shifting customer trends.

Maine (and US) retail giant, L.L. Bean, has announced that they will be laying off customer service workers in addition to changing the hours that their call center is open.

According to an article by WGME 13, the company, based out of Freeport, Maine, has said that this decision was reached based on their observation of customer trends. L.L. Bean says that customers are shopping more online than they ever have before and are calling the customer service line less and less.

WGME is reporting that beginning in July of this year, the L.L. Bean call center will change its hours of operation from 7a-11p to 8a-8p. They say this change will better serve the customers and the company as fewer people are calling early in the morning and late at night.

At this time, we're not exactly sure how many current jobs will be affected by the upcoming layoffs, though we do know the majority of layoffs appear to be coming from the company's longtime call center.

L.L. Bean released a statement regarding the upcoming layoffs and call center schedule change and said in part,

"Impacting people’s jobs and schedules is never a decision L.L. Bean makes lightly, and we will be offering impacted employees severance, outplacement services and for those who are eligible, company retiree benefits."

We will keep this story updated as more information becomes available to us.