Thread by @JanieVelencia

If you're just tuning in, @Paper_Source declared bankruptcy this week. But before they did that, they put in lots of large orders with over 250 small independent companies knowing that they wouldn't have to pay for the inventory after the fact. THREAD

After a very difficult year, wholesalers like myself thought retail was finally getting its second wind. And we all eagerly accepted PS’s orders ranging from $5,000 to as much as $60,000 and worked overtime to get them out fast by their expedited deadlines.

For my business, Paper Source ordered more in a 60 day period than they did in all of 2020. And this is true for many others in the industry. Again, they did this to cook their books at our expense.

Why order product they can't pay for? Because they're using all of our inventory as liquidation income and assets to look better to venture capital firms they're trying to sell to. They made poor business decisions but small businesses will suffer while they get a buyout.

What @Paper_Source is doing is doing to small stationery companies is fraud yet it’s all perfectly legal. They are too big to fail.

Terms of bankruptcy say we might get paid on orders placed 20 days prior. Small business will be the last in line after everyone else they owe money to. It could take years for payouts to be made and in the end we may not see a penny.

For orders older than 20 days, their bankruptcy terms don’t outline any recourse. Meaning that there’s no possibility of seeing any of those payments.

Meanwhile, @Paper_Source has informed us that they intend to keep placing orders and expect us to deliver on them post bankruptcy and that we will get paid for new orders on net 60 terms.

I was initially hesitant to criticize Paper Source for what they’ve done because they’re a big buyer. You don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you. Now we're in the position to keep selling to them even though they’ve burned us in hopes that we can make up some of that money.

But this all feels so unjust. It’s despicable. As a small business, I would never be able to get away with what they’re doing. I would not be able to simply declare bankruptcy and have all my problems go away.

Many of these small stationery companies are family run and rely on this money for their livelihoods They’ve also made business decisions with the expectation that this money would be coming in. Paper Source walks away and we all foot the bill. It’s the Classic American Story.

Also an important note.

https://twitter.com/ispencer/status/1367655900782211078

.@Investcorp’s CEO boasted about winning a Private Equity Firm of the Year Award the same day his company, @paper_source, declared bankruptcy and effectively stole $15,000 in product from my small company.

https://twitter.com/MMAlardhi/status/1366702539027144704

Anyone know somebody in @AGMarkHerring office that can look into this? They filed for bankruptcy in Virginia.