St. Petersburg's Wild Shrimp Company restaurant closing this Saturday

because of reduced cashflow, Walton started taking short cuts a few months ago, like two-liter sodas instead of fountain and supplies bought from stores instead of suppliers. Necessary when money's just trickling in, but deadly to profit.

I asked Walton if he wants a white knight investor to come in and bail out the restaurant, but he didn't sound enthusiastic.

A person could probably flat out purchase this business for around $40k, or someone could rent the building and the equipment. It would probably take about $10-15k to keep it running for the next year, depending on the economy.

Walton mentioned that his sister offered to invest or purchase it, but he told her not to. "I've got a skewed view of things right now," he said.

From my point of view, I'm seeing the worst stuff I've seen in my life, as far as the economy goes, especially in Pinellas. Personally, I'm beat. It's 20 months of my life, Im upset about it, but chances are something good will come out of it.

Here's the sad and brilliant gift basket details:

4 cans Colt 45

1 Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

1 box Trojan Magnum latex condums

1 toy pistol with audible "gun firing" sound effect

1 Darth Vader mask

1 monkey smoking cigarettes figurine

1 can Pringles grab and go pizza flavored chips

1 can of Spam

1 package Uncle Al's cokies fig bars

1 box Mike & Ikes original fruits candy

1 pouch Sathers Gummi Dinos (clearly marked 2/$1.00, which means they kept and possible ate the other package)

1 Happy Birthday Bitch Goddess party hat (no, really)

1 packet Kool-aid Invisible

1 Toilet Bowl Mop

1 Mugshots news paper

The card read:

Dear Creative Loafers,

Thanks for everything!

Please accept this gift basket as a token of our esteem.

Wild Shrimp Co.

PS. We love you guys. Please schedule an orgy with our two staffs.

Sincerely, J.W.