A logo from “The Takeout Times” as seen on its Facebook page. The company charged local businesses for ad space in a brochure that has not been distributed and then stopped accepting customers’ calls.
In what could have the makings of a scam, an Oregon company charged at least two Aspen businesses $1,000 for ad space in a brochure that doesn’t exist.
The Takeout Times LLC purportedly told at least two Aspen business owners it was selling advertisements in a brochure that three local restaurants agreed to distribute in their takeout orders for one year. The two business owners each paid the company $1,000 for advertisements. The brochure has not materialized and the business owners say The Takeout Times has stopped responding to them altogether.
Both business owners are now working with their credit card companies to recoup the lost funds, wondering if they’ve become victims of a scam. Neither has received a refund yet.
Paramedic and dog-care business owner Deborah Hutchinson said if she can’t recover her money, she will need to work two 24-hour shifts at the hospital to make up for the loss.
“That’s 48 hours of my life I have to give to recoup that,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson, who was born in Aspen, celebrated her 30th year working as a paramedic at Aspen Valley Hospital on May 22. On Tuesday, she said she would finally have time to have further conversations with the bank about recovering her money.
“I’ve been so busy working I haven’t even had time to take the bank’s calls,” Hutchinson said on Monday.
Hutchinson runs a dog-boarding and dog-walking company called Aspen Pet Services Ltd. from her home in Woody Creek.
Bisque Jackson — who also paid for an ad through The Takeout Times — owns Aspen Veterinary Services, which offers emergency and routine care for pets in downtown Aspen.
Hutchinson and Jackson both said that a Takeout Times salesperson contacted them in December. The salesperson, who identified himself as Sky Grady, told Hutchinson and Jackson that his company was arranging a brochure to be included with takeout orders from Hickory House Ribs, Home Team BBQ and Silverpeak Grill, according to separate interviews with the two business owners. Grady told them the brochure would include menus for the three restaurants and advertisements from other local businesses, according to the interviews.
Hickory House owner Paul Dioguardi told the Aspen Daily News in an email that The Takeout Times may have contacted him “about a year ago” and that he doesn’t believe the restaurant ever sent the company any menus for a brochure. Dioguardi said Hickory House “definitely” didn’t pay The Takeout Times for anything.
The Takeout Times has a functioning website and Facebook page, though its LinkedIn page no longer exists. Comments on the company’s most recent Facebook posts include two business owners from Colorado and Idaho. One comment reads, “Complete rip off! They will take your money and never follow through!!!” Another simply states, “CROOKS.”
Grady has a LinkedIn page indicating that he worked for The Takeout Times as a “Senior Sales Associate” from September 2022 to April 2024.
The Takeout Times could not be reached for comment on Monday. The Aspen Daily News also attempted to contact Steakout Takeout, the company where Grady now works, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Jackson said she mistakenly assumed the Takeout Times was a local company, possibly associated with The Aspen Times, because of Grady’s knowledge of local businesses. Jackson said she paid $1,000 in one installment. Hutchinson paid two installments of $500.
The Takeout Times sent them a contract, which Jackson says she did not sign (Hutchinson says she did). The contract does not state a firm timeline for when The Takeout Times must deliver a final product. It also does not prohibit customers from seeking a refund or disputing a credit card charge. The contract does prohibit customers from seeking recourse in court, instead requiring customers to resolve any issues through a “mutually agreeable arbitrator in Clackamas County, Oregon.”
The Takeout Times sent Jackson a first draft of her ad copy in late January. Jackson said the copy did not accurately reflect her business. The company provided her with a second draft in early April. Jackson provided both drafts to the Aspen Daily News. An online artificial intelligence detector identified 100% of both drafts as AI-generated content.
In April, Jackson attempted to confront Grady, saying she had communicated with restaurant owners supposedly participating in the brochure and that they did not confirm any relationship with The Takeout Times. Jackson said Grady told her she needed to speak with “customer service.” Grady transferred her call, and then it died. No one answered her call the following day.
Around the same time, The Takeout Times also stopped responding to Hutchinson entirely.
“It just went to a beep. It wouldn’t even let me leave a message,” Hutchinson said.
The Virginia-based Better Business Bureau reports having received a pattern of similar complaints regarding The Takeout Times LLC in January. Complaints about the business continued through April. Complaints consistently tell stories almost identical to those of Jackson and Hutchinson.
“It’s becoming more and more apparent that I have been scammed out of thousands of dollars for advertising from a company that does not even have a relationship with any of the restaurants they claim to provide menu services for,” one complainant wrote in April.
The company has received a total of 29 complaints in the last three years. The BBB says The Takeout Times has not responded to a Feb. 7 request to address its pattern of complaints.
Records from the Oregon Secretary of State show that The Takeout Times LLC was dissolved on Dec. 21. An individual named Denena Reamy incorporated the company in October 2022. The company’s headquarters are in Milwaukie, Oregon, where Google Maps’s street view shows a building with “The Table Times” written on its facade. Oregon records show that Reamy also incorporated a company by that name (The Table Times Inc.) in 2016 and dissolved it on Feb. 22.
The Table Times has a website almost identical to that of The Takeout Times. Grady’s LinkedIn shows him as a “Sales Associate” at The Table Times for the same period he worked at The Takeout Times.
The BBB has observed a pattern of complaints for The Table Times that mirrors that of The Takeout Times.
In total, either Reamy or Jamie Beagle, who is registered as the president of The Table Times Inc., are officially listed on incorporation documents for 18 companies in Oregon, at least five of which are headquartered at the same Milwaukie address. Companies associated with Reamy include a “doggie accessories and clothing” company called “I Identify as a Bitch LLC” and a slew of other companies with names similar to The Takeout Times (The Table Talk, The Tee Times, The Folder Times, etc).
The BBB looked into one of these companies, Restaurant Entertainment Inc., in 2015 for sending a door-to-door salesman to offer advertising to restaurants in Mississippi without a permit. The company said none of their employees was engaged in that activity.
The Aspen Police Department could not be reached for comment during the Memorial Day holiday.
Reamy’s newest company, Steakout Takeout LLC, was incorporated in January, headquartered at the same address as The Takeout Times. The company has a website that uses many of the same images present on The Takeout Times’s website and also claims to print menus.
Though it was incorporated this year, the website states that the company works with “tens of thousands of premier, locally owned restaurants across the United States and Canada.”
Grady is currently employed as a “Senior Sales Associate” at Steakout Takeout, according to his LinkedIn.
