Steady As She Goes

But a lack of strict business rules wasn’t the only challenge Giesler and his team faced. On April 5, 1998, just four days after the deal closed on AmeriMark, a heater in the company’s warehouse started a fire, resulting in smoke damage to all of the apparel.

It was a major hindrance to AmeriMark’s business, resulting in unfulfilled orders, back orders and several months’ disruption of service until the warehouse could be repaired. “We were right into the spring season, so we really missed the entire spring and part of the summer season because we were primarily an apparel business at that point in time, with some cosmetics and jewelry,” Giesler recalls. “We closed on the company on April Fool’s Day, so I guess that should’ve told us something.”