Photo Video Store Will Go to Auction

Owners Jim and Lynn Piecewicz have reluctantly agreed that letting the Photo Video Store in Wayland go to auction is the most reasonable course of action given the taxes owed.

On April 3, the for failure to pay $32,071 mostly in sales taxes.

Jim Piecewicz said his store had been progressively losing money throughout the past several years, but had experienced a particularly sharp decline in the last several months.

“It was a family business," Piecewicz said. He and his wife purchased the store about eight years ago and are the third owners. "We may have held on a bit too long, we’re not sure. It was just very hard to keep up.”

Piecewicz chalked up the store's downfall to the economy as well as customers increasingly going online for the services offered by the Photo Video Store.

He said they considered taking out a loan to pay the taxes and even talked with family and friends about borrowing the funds, but after looking at the store's balance sheet, they decided borrowing money would mean "taking out good money to go to bad.”

Allowing the DOR to auction the business was the most viable option for repaying the tax debt.

“We want to thank all the customers we’ve had over the years," Piecewicz said. “We’re sorry about this, and we were hoping for a better outcome.”

He said they have been busily contacting customers to return items left at the store, and in some cases actually driving the items to customers' homes. Piecewicz said most items have been returned, but customers will be allowed to return to the store to claim any personal effects before the DOR auction, which will be publicized at a later date.

"We’re very upset about closing it,“ Piecewicz said. "We’re not bitter about it. It’s just something that happened."