I smell a giant (inflatable) rat!

A small (non-union) firm crafts giant balloons of rats, greedy pigs, and more for parades and picket lines.

An employee fills an inflatable balloon.
It all started with golf accessories. In 1982, David Scherba was a 26-year-old golf-cart salesman who started a side business selling canvas golf-cart covers. David made the sales while his brother Robert did the sewing. Driving home from a sales call one day, David spied an inflatable shaped like a hot-air balloon on the roof of a McDonald's in Elyria, Ohio. Inspiration struck. Robert agreed to sew a few inflatables, which David rented out to local businesses.

The duo soon produced a Frostie cup for a local Wendy's and a B.F. Goodrich tire. Within three years the Scherba brothers had quit their day jobs, and the house they shared was filled with seamstresses. When neighbors objected to a 20-foot-tall Ronald McDonald inflatable peeping in their bedroom windows, the business moved into its first warehouse.


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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.