THE YOU CAN BEAT A BOOTLEGGER

AFTER ALL AWARD Everyone needs at least one pair of jeans, possibly several, but we apparently aren’t buying many at Bootlegger. Comark Inc., the owner of Bootlegger, Ricki’s and Cleo clothing stores, filed for bankruptcy protection in March after almost 40 years of operation. If you haven’t shopped at Bootlegger since the 1980s, you’re not alone. A visit to YouTube to check out its old television ads (bit. ly/1MCEWVb) might jog your memory — and not necessarily in a good way: Bootboot boot-Bootlegger. Granted, these were before CEO Gerry Bachynski’s time. But this story has a happy ending as Pacific West Commercial Corp., an affiliate of Stern Partners Inc., based in Vancouver, bought Bootlegger and the other two chains out of protection, saving most of the jobs of the 3,000 people who work there.