I know … right? Now, there’s no rule against shutting down your business secretly or abruptly, but there’s this whole “bed bug infestation” rumor that should be cleared up — so let’s start with that and then I’ll tell you what I know about the quick disappearance of Ameriway Charities.
I saw some Facebook discussions about a month or so ago that someone bought a used mattress from Ameriway and subsequently found they had a bed bug infestation. There was conversation about the legality (or rather, the illegality) of selling used mattresses and of course, that led to questions about the possibility of a bed bug infestation at the thrift store.
I checked with one of my peeps and understand that following a complaint, both Clark County AND the Environmental Protection Agency had been to the thrift store location and happily, found no evidence of bed bugs. So that’s great news for the property owner, neighboring tenants and future occupant of that space. Cuz bed bugs are officially high on my ‘Eeeww Meter’!
But now let’s talk about all the “cloak & dagger” that seems to be surrounding this week’s shuttering of Ameriway Charities’ Boulder City thrift store:
Two weeks ago, my super-sleuthing around the web for news about Boulder City uncovered a Gsalr.com listing that said a “Giant Thrift Store” was selling everything and the address indicated that it was Ameriway Charities on Canyon Rd.
Days later, a similar post showed up on Craig’s List (although it’s since been ‘deleted by its author’).
Since Ameriway had a sidebar ad on Boulder City Social that was coming up for auto-renewal, I called Ameriway’s owner, Paul Tarantino, last week to ask if I should cancel it so he wouldn’t be out that $20. He said absolutely not … they were just consolidating down into the single space at 728 Canyon Road (they were also occupying the space at 730) and in fact, were even going to be opening a thrift store in Henderson.
Oh, and I let him know that I’d tried to visit his website, but it was no longer up. He said he knew … they were just revamping it, that’s all.
Fast forward one week to the day before yesterday (July 28th, 2015) … I heard that Ameriway was gone with the wind – so I called Paul again and whaddya know … the phone has been disconnected!
But (diligent as ever) I popped up there this morning, noting en route that all of the Ameriway logo/info had been removed from the Pods donation bin in the Haggen/99 Cents Only Store parking lot.
At the thrift store, the entire front (which always had a ton of stuff outside) was cleared out … the space is totally empty … there is a For Rent sign in the window.
Add these to the Gslr.com and Craig’s List posts, the missing website, the disconnected phone and the donation bin and well, you can draw your own conclusion?
