Oregon’s Tax Structure Lures L.L. Bean

The outlet mall in this coastal city is being expanded by 22 stores, including L.L. Bean’s first store beyond the East Coast.

The 16,000-square-foot L.L. Bean store and a two-story parking structure will open June 1, with the remaining stores opening in September, said Diane Cox, marketing director for the Factory Stores at Lincoln City.

L.L. Bean will offer discontinued items, second-quality returns and similar merchandise.

The new outlet will be L.L. Bean’s seventh factory store. The others are in Freeport and Ellsworth, Maine; Concord, Nashua and North Conway, N.H., and Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Lincoln City, a coastal tourist town not unlike L.L. Bean’s home base of Freeport, was chosen in large part because Oregon - like New Hampshire and Delaware - has no state sales tax, said Catharine Hartnett, company spokeswoman.

That frees the company from having to collect a tax on all sales in the state, including those from its catalog customers there.