He bet his life savings on paper straws. Trump may destroy his business.
After 50 years toiling in the country’s paper mills, the 75-year-old plunked his life savings into creating a “24 hours strong” straw that he manufactures in Woodstock, Illinois, and sells to more than 1,000 restaurants, bars, coffee shops and casinos.
But now, two years in, Spinelli says the party is over. President Donald Trump’s executive order last month calling to “end the use of paper straws” dealt a swift, decisive blow to his business, Boss Straw. Orders have stalled, even though the action only stopped purchases of paper straws by the federal government. Instead of selling $800,000 worth of straws this year, Spinelli fears it’ll be one-tenth of that.
“Our distributors are saying, ‘Everyone’s going back to plastic now because of the president,’” he said. “The president I voted for, the man who says ‘Let’s make America great again, let’s help small businesses grow,’ that man is going to put me out of business.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bet-life-savings-paper-straws-161301480.html