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[rooparoopa]

There's now a website, http://savetosci.com/, where you can donate to tosci's. The stated goal is to raise enough for a down payment on the taxes, so they can reopen and get to work on the bulk of it. Currently, they're at $2000

Comments

[eingy]

I read through some of the comments, and I have to say that I really love the idea of them selling gift cards rather than simply accepting donations -- even at fundraising levels (say, donate $20 and get a $10 gift card). Then you are working the business to help the business.

I am not against anyone making them a donation. It sound like many employees want to give back to the owners, and I certainly enjoyed their ice creams on occasion. And I do definitely think helping keep local businesses open is a great cause for a community to stand behind.

I guess the other question that the comments on that blog raised was what happened between being notified from the government of being backed up on taxes and the business actually being seized? From the moment the notification happens, I would hope that some effort was made to work out a repayment plan. Someone suggested the back taxes were known about for 7 years. Is this true? I have no idea how I'd verify that. And maybe something was worked out in the past and they were unable to comply with the terms, which sucks because that would mean they were doing their best and heartbreakingly were not able to make it work.

But that's just speculation. I don't know what happened, so it's impossible for me to by default generate goodwill toward a purely fundraising effort.

Many of my extended family members run small, tight-budgeted business, and I know just how tough it can be, how tight the margins are, and how terrifying it can be where there is a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, and when the economy is not doing well, a small mistake can cost almost everything.

So I do feel bad for them. But again, because I don't know what happened and all I know is that they said in their open letter that the problem is that they simply did not pay, I can't open my wallet to them. If there were large medical bills, if they simply estimated their quarterly tax payments wrong for years because they were making the same accounting mistake year after year, if they were going out of their way to keep employees hired even through tough times, I'd understand and want to help. They simply haven't said anything that makes sense to me. :(