People love collecting brewery merchandise. They work it into vacations to try out new spots and buy things like T-shirts, can coolers, stickers, and more.
But Atrevida Beer Company in Colorado Springs has been dealing with insane demand for their products after something a little more heroic than just making good beer.
The brewery is owned by the Fierro family, many of whom were on site at the Club Q shooting in November 2022 in Colorado Springs, where a gunman opened fire in the LGBTQ+ bar, killing five people and injuring dozens more.
“Everybody in there was doing something heroic,” Rich Fiero, who reportedly helped stop the shooter, told Denver 7. “Every single person, whether it was hiding, hiding with someone, keeping someone alive, running to get help, or bringing in help. We went to a club that night not expecting to have anything changed. We’re just going to go through Thanksgiving, do all those things. And all of a sudden, our world changed.”
As a way for people to show their gratitude toward the Fierros, they started buying up every piece of merchandise from Atrevida that they could, resulting in “tens of thousands of merchandise orders,” which overwhelmed the business.
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“It was a blessing, right,” Fierro told Denver 7. “But then it became kind of a hard thing for us to manage because we’ve never dealt with that quantity or that amount of stuff. It’s not stuff we make, so I couldn’t just ramp up production. I was like, ‘I have no idea where to find it.'”
Fierro’s daughter, Jess, whose boyfriend was killed in the attack, handles the merchandise sales for Atrevida. According to Denver 7, she had to shut down the online store this past spring because of the sheer number of orders, and is now working on finding suppliers who can handle the demand. Until the existing orders ship, they don’t plan to reopen online orders.
“There’s so many different logistics to go into trying to fulfill orders at this scale,” she told Denver 7. “And so it’s been, admittedly, a huge learning curve for me.”
They’ve also had to stop selling the products like T-shirts in store, knowing that all orders are backlogged for people who placed them online.
Unfortunately, the family has had to deal with buyers who have grown impatient and don’t understand the process of how the products go from production to delivery, and have called them “lowlife scumbag f***ing thieves” online, thinking that they are simply pocketing the money and not shipping products. Their Better Business Bureau rating has dropped from an A to a D-.
Complaints from over the summer mostly have to do with undelivered merchandise, where buyers believe they have been “scammed.” The company has done its best to rectify the situation by responding, telling customers that they have videos to inform buyers of where they are in the product sourcing process, and have reached out to “anyone who calls the brewery directly” saying they have not received an order.
“We are not in the business of clothing retail,” one response says. “We’re in the business of beer first. This was a learning curve for us with all that is involved logistically with a fulfillment order of this scale. There are many departments working together between three different businesses to get these orders fulfilled. WE don’t expect the average person to understand this. However, we have asked for patience as we navigate during this horrific time. IF an order has been placed then they will receive their proper order.”
It’s a tough situation to be in. A small, family-owned brewery in a relatively small city that just opened in 2018 would not be the obvious choice for a nationwide merchandise run. But, in the blink of an eye, like the family said after the tragedy, life can change.
This is a story of multiple blessings and curses. A small business is getting attention it otherwise might never have received, but it comes on the back of a horrific tragedy. And, with that demand, comes a labor process they were not prepared for, and it’s caused unfair backlash from consumers.
