04/08/2023
It’s time to address the elephant in the room…
Scott Kellogg here: I have been working incredibly hard for the last year to keep Total Trash Records afloat. There has been a series of events that have made it impossible. A great deal of it was my fault, and while I wanted to place blame elsewhere, I was ultimately responsible for what has happened to probably the greatest thing I’ve ever been a part of in my life, to become a bit of a mess.
I am truly sad about it all, and ashamed of how I’ve handled the events up to what appears to be the end of the business. This was my dream as a kid. When those security questions on banks or credit applications would ask what your dream job was, record store owner was always the answer.
I could tell the long, convoluted story as to why everything went awry, but it was never anything nefarious on my part, as some have come to believe.
I’d be willing to tell anyone who’s going to listen, but in a public forum like this it would only look like excuses, and I frankly don’t like those myself. So if you’re truly interested in hearing all the messy reasons beyond my own personal inability to keep things running, then I’d be happy to go over the details with you.
For now, I potentially have to say goodbye to a business that made me happy to walk into and work at everyday.
I am not walking away from debt that I accrued during my ownership. I plan to reconcile with everyone I’ve done consignment with. I plan to honor all unfinished handshake contracts I’ve entered into. I won’t walk away with people thinking I’ll be shrugging my responsibility to them and the money they’ve invested in me or been waiting for. I am true to my word even if I have to send you $20 a week for the rest of my life.
I truly had no intention of letting anyone down, and I an incredibly sorry and sad.
I can’t thank my friends and family enough, for the support you’ve given me over the last 3-4 years. My landlords are very nice people, and just like me they have a business to run, that won’t operate without money coming in.
I can’t wave a magic wand over the whole thing, don’t really have the means to drum up any private investors, even if I know exactly what could keep this juice going. It’s taken tolls on my marriage, my sanity, and my health. I don’t want to walk away from it, but I can’t see any other option.
I haven’t really had time for Facebook in a very long while. I’m sorry if I haven been in touch with a lot of people, on here and in person. Everyday has been like a rat in a maze, looking for the cheese that will subside it’s hunger for one more day. It’s more like a band aid most of the time, rather than a remedy. In turn, I had no social life, and balancing all that has happened over the last year has made life overwhelming.
Please forgive my absence, both socially and at the record store during the times I’ve been ill or couldn’t afford the nearly eight thousand dollar power bill that accrued during the elongated winter we had. It was running around 800-1500 per month with electric heat. Avista turned the power off at the store twice and my house next door once. I know that the bill was my responsibility, but I can’t run a store in the dark and I was embarrassed.
Unless by the grace of some higher power that I can be presented with winning the lottery or I find a magic lamp, I plan to liquidate my inventory, so I can pay off personal loans or debts first, and then to the bill collectors who have less patience than the people who have helped me.
I can’t thank you all enough for your support. I wish I had better news. I will be posting again about how things and dollars owed will be proceeding.
My word is the best and only thing I have, and I don’t want a single person from the largest dollar amount owed, down to the smallest gift certificate amount, to think that I’m not thinking about them going forward.
Please don’t continue to write bad reviews or get mad because we’re not open. That’s not what we prefer to do. We’d prefer doing business with you all and making you happy. It’s very hard to make that work right now, and I’m very sorry.
Feel free to comment here or ask any questions. However if it something nasty you’d like to say to me, please save that for a personal message, so I can make sure to personally address the issue. I will delete any comments that are nasty or accusatory.
I’d say I’ll miss you all, but I’ll see you around, so I’ll just say…i hope to see you all soon. I appreciate each and every last one of you….Well maybe not every one, because you’d all know I was full of s**t, because I am Scott Kellogg, and if you didn’t know me to have issues with people sometimes, you’d think something was wrong.
Thank you all and I’ll see you soon.
