A veteran journalist follows an inspiring ensemble cast of small
business owners fighting to keep their businesses alive through
Covid-19, while exploring the sweeping trends and government policies
that had brought small businesses to the breaking point long before the
coronavirus hit.
There is a tendency to fetishize small business even as it shrinks
before our eyes. Americans extol the virtues of small, local, often
family-run shops, yet buy from big-box retailers and chains that
dominate the competition. Even before the pandemic, small businesses
seemed endangered. When Covid-19 hit, the resounding question was: How
will they be able to survive this?
Saving Main Street is an unfiltered, up-close examination of a small
group of business owners and their employees, their struggles, and their
strategies to survive. It is an eye-opening tale of grit, perseverance,
and entrepreneurial spirit that follows three businesses: a restaurant
owner and his rambunctious staff, an immigrant running her own hair
salon, and the owner of a "non-life sustaining" gift shop--alongside a
larger cast of vividly drawn characters.
Gary Rivlin focuses on the first days of the Covid lockdown and the
ensuing eighteen months of chaos, including the personal and financial
risks, a contentious presidential election, and contradictory
governmental guidelines--all which compounded the everyday challenges of
running an independent business trying to attract and retain customers
who expect low prices, convenience, and endless choice. Rivlin keenly
observes small businesses from all angles, examining commonly held
"myths"; contradictions in government policy; enormous racial and class
fissures; a national self-identity intrinsically connected to the ideal
of small business, and how the decline of this American way of retail
impacts our notions of American exceptionalism, community, and civic
duty.
As Rivlin reveals, there's something enduring about small business in
the American psyche. Life will have changed in unprecedented ways on the
other side of this pandemic, yet hard times will also create
opportunities, offering hope and survival.
