Overdue Tab at Ashley's Deli? (Public) Shame on You

Those thinking about racking up a large tab at Ashley's Deli and not paying the bill may now have second thoughts after the Hermosa Avenue small business was forced to get creative in collecting its long overdue bills.

Last week, owner Kristine Ashely was forced to resort to public shaming after two of her customers allegedly refused to pay their deli tabs despite multiple requests and even hand-delivered letters to their residences over the course of five months.

The message Tuesday, printed on a white piece of paper and taped to the outside windows of the store for all to see was polite, but very clear – "Dear Jay Hardt, Please pay your past due balance of $134.84 at Ashley's Deli immediately!! Thank you."

A similar notice accompanied Hardt's letter last week but Ashley said that customer finally paid up.

"It was more of a last resort... They both had plenty of time to pay," Ashley explained Tuesday. "We went way beyond the call of duty."

Ashley, who has owned the deli for 14 years, said that the money has been owed to her since October 2012 and she needed to close out her books. In an attempt to collect, Ashley said she hand delivered letters to each customer and even gave them another 30 days to pay up. When that failed, Ashley got creative.

"It came down to public shaming for my payback," Ashley explained. "I did what I could, but I am a small business... That is my money," Ashley added. "You don't screw the neighborhood market."

Ashley said that the public notices have generated a lot of laughs as well as conversation as many of her regular customers know the two people she was trying to collect from.

"The whole town knows him and everyone was telling him to pay his bill," Ashley said of one of the men who owed approximately $80. 

In general, Ashley said that she is a generous business owner and is very accommodating if somebody forgets their wallet and needs to pay later. Moving forward, Ashley explained that will probably quit doing tabs.

"I don't really do the tabs anymore because of people like that," Ashley said. "They ruined it for everyone else."