Help “the basement” owners !
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Read below ;
Seven years ago a man who helped raise me, and whom I consider family, along with his friend Chris decided to venture down the road of being an entrepreneurs ! Following their mutual passions of gaming they opened “the basement” and have been more than just a video game store in the city of Niagara Falls. The became a safe haven for teens, and people of all ages, they built friendships and a family of people who followed them consistently! As people close to them know - on may 5th they had to close up shop and now they our face great amounts of debt. Of course the closure of “the basement” is a huge heart break to many as to themselves... but I would like to give everyone a chance to give back to two kind chaps who give so much to their community. (I would like to be clear that the money raised will be to help them get out of debt and not to bring “the basement” back.)
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A message from Ben and Chris:
It is with the greatest sadness that we have to announce that The Basement is closing.
This is not a decision that we were expecting to have to make at this time but the truth of it is, the business owes too much money and on the advice of a insolvency trustee we will be stopping functioning as a business as of tomorrow (Saturday May 5th) and we will be putting together a consumer proposal for our creditors or worst case scenario personal bankruptcies. This was not our reality even a week ago, but a perfect storm of circumstances toward late last month has led us to a point where we have had to draw this line.
Our inventory has been bought in bulk and even though our preferred choice would be to offer liquidation sales to our customers, our responsibilities have dictated this direction.
The hardest truth of closing the business in this manner, is that we cannot honor the credit that people might still have in the system. It is our biggest disappointment and want to offer our deepest apologies.
During this time it is easy to want to look back and to try and and see what we could have done differently but to be honest, every decision we've made and especially the risks we took as a business, were made based on what we truly believed to be the best for us and for our customers. It's possible that being truly passionate about gaming and to really want to share that passion through our business with you, might have distorted the best business decisions we could have made. However, we always wanted to stay true to want made us want to open The Basement in the first place.
It is true that the next couple of months are going to very challenging for myself and Chris as we work our way through our financial obligations and we look at starting the next chapter in our lives, but we also look back on the last 7 years with no regrets:
We are extremely grateful for the time we have been able to spend these last few years surrounded by all things video game related. For us it has always been the enjoyment of, not just the games themselves, but the culture and history of gaming and the passion and creativity of the gaming community.
Whether it's been helping people find their next game to enjoy, helping people relive their best gaming memories or hosting various events in-house or with other businesses, it has been an absolute privilege to be a part of the local gaming scene.
We have met so many fantastic people along the way and have come to call many friends and even family and hope that we will still see many of you as we start whatever our next chapter-in-life may look like.
Thank you to everyone for helping us live our dream for 7 years.
All the best,
Ben and Chris.
Seven years ago a man who helped raise me, and whom I consider family, along with his friend Chris decided to venture down the road of being an entrepreneurs ! Following their mutual passions of gaming they opened “the basement” and have been more than just a video game store in the city of Niagara Falls. The became a safe haven for teens, and people of all ages, they built friendships and a family of people who followed them consistently! As people close to them know - on may 5th they had to close up shop and now they our face great amounts of debt. Of course the closure of “the basement” is a huge heart break to many as to themselves... but I would like to give everyone a chance to give back to two kind chaps who give so much to their community. (I would like to be clear that the money raised will be to help them get out of debt and not to bring “the basement” back.) ————————————————————-
A message from Ben and Chris:
It is with the greatest sadness that we have to announce that The Basement is closing.
This is not a decision that we were expecting to have to make at this time but the truth of it is, the business owes too much money and on the advice of a insolvency trustee we will be stopping functioning as a business as of tomorrow (Saturday May 5th) and we will be putting together a consumer proposal for our creditors or worst case scenario personal bankruptcies. This was not our reality even a week ago, but a perfect storm of circumstances toward late last month has led us to a point where we have had to draw this line.
Our inventory has been bought in bulk and even though our preferred choice would be to offer liquidation sales to our customers, our responsibilities have dictated this direction.
The hardest truth of closing the business in this manner, is that we cannot honor the credit that people might still have in the system. It is our biggest disappointment and want to offer our deepest apologies.
During this time it is easy to want to look back and to try and and see what we could have done differently but to be honest, every decision we've made and especially the risks we took as a business, were made based on what we truly believed to be the best for us and for our customers. It's possible that being truly passionate about gaming and to really want to share that passion through our business with you, might have distorted the best business decisions we could have made. However, we always wanted to stay true to want made us want to open The Basement in the first place.
It is true that the next couple of months are going to very challenging for myself and Chris as we work our way through our financial obligations and we look at starting the next chapter in our lives, but we also look back on the last 7 years with no regrets:
We are extremely grateful for the time we have been able to spend these last few years surrounded by all things video game related. For us it has always been the enjoyment of, not just the games themselves, but the culture and history of gaming and the passion and creativity of the gaming community.
Whether it's been helping people find their next game to enjoy, helping people relive their best gaming memories or hosting various events in-house or with other businesses, it has been an absolute privilege to be a part of the local gaming scene.
We have met so many fantastic people along the way and have come to call many friends and even family and hope that we will still see many of you as we start whatever our next chapter-in-life may look like.
Thank you to everyone for helping us live our dream for 7 years.
All the best,
Ben and Chris.
Organizer and beneficiary
Hope Miller
Organizer
Niagara Falls, ON
Benjamin Senior
Beneficiary
