The story of InkStop is a worker's nightmare. For months now, the company kept assuring its staff selling printer ink and office supplies that everything was fine. They were expanding; they were hiring. There were just some speed bumps along the way because of the recession.
Then, last week and without warning, the company abruptly shut down.
ROTHACKER: I knew things were tough for the company. I didn't know they were that tough.
Greg Rothacker was an InkStop store manager for nearly two years. He got a call late last Thursday that he wouldn't be going to work the next day. And…he wouldn't be getting the more than $2000 in back pay he earned the past few weeks.
Now, he and fellow-manager Brian Wolf stand outside Rothacker's former store in Strongsville.
There's no note to customers on the door telling them of the closure: only a few stickers from UPS drivers who were, understandably, unable to deliver shipments. For Rothacker, it's kind of gallows humor.
ROTHACKER: As you can see, over on the door, our InkStop brand ink is 75% off. Don't know how you're going to take advantage of that deal, but good luck to you if you can.
Rothacker says the first warning sign that things weren't totally rosy at InkStop was a dwindling supply of ink. There hadn't been a shipment since June.
ROTHACKER: Or as Brian put it, "Ink Stopped."
Still, he believed the company's assurances that everything was OK.
Now, locked out and laid off, Rothacker and Wolf spend their days applying for jobs online.
For Wolf, even the 40 mile trek to see his mother gives him pause.
WOLF: I'm forty years old. The last thing I want to do is ask my mom for gas money. (let bite breathe for a second)
Rothacker was about to become a homeowner.
ROTHACKER: The doors closed at InkStop on Friday, Saturday we got a call from a realtor saying the bank finally approved our offer, and it was such a heartbreaker for my wife and I.
He has five days to find a job or the deal is off.
That's why these two Ohioans don't want to hear that the recession is finished.
WOLF: They say the recession's ending, the recession's over, we're out of the woods, we're out of the dark, you can hear the munchkins singing now, and the answer is wrong! If you look around, you see a lot more of this happening.
Indeed. So far this year, there've been 170 mass layoffs in Ohio.