AUCTION

Auction of Club 4100
May 29, 2009
1:00
I went to the auction and there was about 30-35 people there that were from the community. Some of these people did not currently live there but had traveled from West Virginia and Ocean City to witness the auction. The starting price of Club 4100 was $1.5 million but went down to around $600,000. I only saw one person who looked like he was placing a bid on it while everyone else there stood by watching who would buy the club. It was hard to tell because it was my first time at an auction and it went extremely fast. After the break and a bidding price around $600,000 the auctioneer came back from talking to Raj and Meena to say that today there would be no selling of the club. Many got in their cars and left while few stayed back socializing outside of the club.
Raj and Meena were not outside when the auctioning was taken place. I am not sure if this is normal or not. I spoke with Raj for a few minutes but tried to distance myself from him so I could gain different perspectives of the club and people who were there. I overheard much talk about how Raj and Meena had no business owning this place and how happy people were that someone else could take over. The people that I did speak with were extremely anxious for Meena and Raj to leave. I gained much more perspective on Meena and Raj and to the community. I still wonder why there is such a division between the club and the community now. What happened for it to get this way? I did hear that Meena had fired up to sixty different employees that were once connected to the club. I don’t know how much of this is true. It is hard to gain insight on what is real, what is made up and how it has gotten to this point. Meena and Raj have been nothing but nice and accepting to me personally but many others will say differently.

I heard people reminiscing about the many memories they had at Club 4100 and how if they had money they would take it over in a heartbeat. The topic on everyone’s mind as I walked through the crowd was that they hoped that whoever bought the club would maintain what the club stood for. I tried to speak with people there but some were very resisting and did not want to speak. Others who spoke to me let me know that Dino (one of the old owners) was upset how it has been run. Also, I overheard a woman share to a group of people that if the biding price went down to $500,000 she was supposed to call Dino because he would buy it.
I was able to gain 3 contacts from this experience. I spoke with one lady who traveled from West Virginia and had spent many years working there. She said she saw the brochure that our class created and she was mentioned in it because she was the lady who was quoted from the interview by the Boston Globe (I think that was it). She gave me her phone number and said she would not mind if I interviewed her in the future. I spoke with one of the auctioneers and he gave me his card. He said that he could help me with any statistical research that his company has obtained from these areas. I also spoke with a reporter from the Maryland Gazette who seemed interested in the independent study. He got my information because he forgot his camera and might need a picture for his report but I did not get his. I will have to look him up if I do not hear from him. Overall, I learned a lot more about the community and the people’s attachment to this Club 4100.