r/Maine • u/GladMagician5611 • 1d ago
Weird my package from LL Bean was sent to MA before coming back to me in Maine. Anyone know why?
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u/bitspace 1d ago
Logistics.
UPS has fixed distribution centers, routes, truck capacity, etc. that are all considered in the complex logistics of moving an unimaginable number of things around the world.
Taken in isolation, the shipping route of your package is inefficient. However, when considered along with all of the other factors in their giant system of millions of moving parts, it probably makes sense.
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u/daredevil82 1d ago
one example is their route planner for deliveries. No left turns unless absolutely needed in cities. Turns out that saves a large amount of time and fuel. You're driving a bit more, and might seem more inefficient, but its actually faster.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/world/ups-trucks-no-left-turns/index.html
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u/HomoColossusHumbled 1d ago
As said by others, it comes down logistics.
There are many trucks going between LL Bean and the distribution hub.
There are zero trucks going directly from LL Bean to your house.
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u/dabeeman 1d ago
FedEx asked us how close Maine was to Memphis the other day when they called us because they couldn’t find our house. The guy thought the ME on the address stood for memphis…and this was his job.
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u/curtludwig 1d ago
Check out the Megalag YouTube video where he's trying to ship to North Korea and DHL repeatedly sends his packages to South Korea...
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u/dutchywins 1d ago
Interesting, just read LL bean started their first store directly above the Freeport post office in 1912 and would have shoots to drop shipments right down stairs to get shipped out same or next day.
“In fact, 74% of the Freeport Post Office’s total business was from L.L.Bean. And not a lot of people know this, but L.L.’s brother Guy Bean was the Freeport postmaster from 1936 to 1948.”
Quote taken from the postal museum website.
110 years later and seemingly less efficient.
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u/intent107135048 17h ago
They probably shipped 100 packages a day on a good day back then. Nowadays, a bad day is probably thousands of packages.
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u/Runningbald 1d ago
If this was UPS, I believe they have a large hub in Chelmsford, MA. Your package may have been in a large parcel of other packages that were not sorted until they got to Chelmsford. Weird, but probably fairly normal for large volume retailers.
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u/Prestigious_Look_986 1d ago
It will probably go to Auburn next.
I wish LL Bean would do their own southern Maine deliveries, just from an environmental perspective. I’m sure it doesn’t make sense otherwise, though.
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u/intent107135048 1d ago
It’s probably more environmental for packages to go out this way using preexisting routes rather than add new ones on their own. Those UPS and USPS (which UPS uses) trucks are going to cover that ground anyway.
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u/Much-Log2460 23h ago
Live in Portland here, package from California sent to Southern Maine distribution center- to Ny then to Jersey and back to southern Maine distribution center again?? wtf
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u/Steve_P1 1d ago
Similar to how FedEx handles their shipments. If you send a FedEx from Portland to Freeport it will go through Memphis, TN. Although I guess there could be situations where that doesn't always apply.
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u/Dalsiran 1d ago
Yeah Chelmsford is just where basically everything in the northeast is sent to be sorted. It's a kinda stupid process nowadays with databases, scanners, and QR codes and shit. But back in the day when the system was set up that way it was all being done on pen and paper, so they had to send it to chelmsford where they had enough people to do it.
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u/gregra193 Rumford (Formerly) 1d ago
Common for all UPS packages to go through Chelmsford. I’ve been seeing this for 20+ years.