Pack Ratt Records and Junk has been in its current location for 10 years. The shop has vintage clothes, surfboards, CDs, magazines, skateboards and more. 

Shop owner Mikey Whaley and store manager Jacob Cataldo will be hosting what they are calling a “garage sale” for the remainder of the month to raise funds for a new location. 

“The garage sale will be until we have to start packing,” Cataldo said. “We’ll probably be selling a lot of T-shirts.” 

These new T-shirts, with the shop’s name on them, are being sold for $25 to help raise funds for a new location. Knick-knacks, skateboards, surfboards, records and CDs, magazines, clothes and other items and services will also be offered. 

“We’re here as long as we can last,” Whaley said. He is hoping to find any “renters that are interested in a cool, legitimate business…we’re still looking.” 

Whaley worked detailing showbikes at Trophy Motorcycles on El Cajon Boulevard as a single dad supporting his daughter. The year was 2011 when he came across somebody getting rid of 4,000 vinyl records. Whaley began selling them out of an empty showroom. 

Fast forward 14 years to a beloved record, skate, surf and clothing shop receiving a 30-day notice of eviction. You walk into the eclectic shop and, with the drop of a needle, are transported to a world of leather boots and belts, vintage Levi’s, old magazines and a lineup of surfboards. 

“They gave us a little note saying: ‘this is it,’” Whaley said. “I don’t know why. There’s no rhyme, no reason.”

Whaley opened up Pack Ratt Records and Junk in 2015 with Dannielle Cobb, just eight blocks over from what used to be the motorcycle shop. 

Cobb runs a vintage clothing store inside of Pack Ratt called Puss in Boots Vintage, which will move with the store, wherever it ends up. Another team member runs the skate shop inside the store called Route 44, according to Cataldo. 

The shop has until Oct. 3 to vacate. Whaley said that when he asked for reasoning, the only information given to him was that the landlord wants the property back. 

“This is a big bummer,” Cataldo said. “[But] it’s not the end whatsoever, just a new beginning for us.” 

San Diego local Nick Wagner said he visits the shop multiple times a month and has for the past five or six years. He believes that they never did anything to deserve the eviction. 

“[I’m] really bummed out and kind of pissed off for them,” Wagner said. 

He also said he often recommends the shop to others and has been going to the garage sale in solidarity. 

“Every single person I know has loved it there,” Wagner said.

Cataldo said that they passed the eviction notice on to an attorney to be looked at and the reason listed was that the owner wants the property back.

Under the Tenant Protection Act, property owners can evict tenants with a ‘just cause.’ This includes the owner withdrawing the rental from the market or moving in, among other things.

According to the types of notices listed on the Self-Help Guide to the California Courts website, if a rental tenant has occupied the property for over a year, they must be given a 60-day notice as opposed to a 30-day one. Whaley has been there for 10 years. 

“This shop has been an institution for rad weirdos for a long time,”  Cataldo said. “…We need to find a new place for it.”

The shop’s Instagram page will have regular updates on the garage sale, along with its future.