Saving Main Street

July 25, 2022
Journalist Rivlin (Katrina) presents an illuminating account of how several small businesses weathered the Covid-19 pandemic. Rivlin introduces readers to TJ Cusumano, owner of an Italian restaurant in Old Forge, Pa.; Glenda Shoemaker, who runs a card and gift shop in Tunkhannock, Pa.; and the Maloney family, founders of a chocolate business in New York City, among others. They all faced tough decisions, such as having to lay off employees and find ways to pay mortgages and vendors, as well as dealing with the pain of potentially losing their life’s work. Rivlin shows his subjects’ struggles to keep afloat, as when Cusumano established a “pop-up market” to sell food supplies before they spoiled, and when the Maloneys slashed prices in an attempt to boost sales. Rivlin also highlights problems that small businesses have faced for decades, which made them especially vulnerable when the pandemic hit. In particular, he writes of how large corporations crush small businesses by offering low prices their competitors can’t, and how the Small Business Administration often enacts plans “rigged in favor of the large and dominant” (2020’s Paycheck Protection Program among them). This one’s full of insight and shrewd reporting. Agent: Elizabeth Kaplan, Elizabeth Kaplan Literary.

September 1, 2022
A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist reports on how small-business owners in northeast Pennsylvania--and one in New York City--weathered the challenges posed by the pandemic. In the best of times, running a small business is a precarious proposition; the pandemic made it nearly impossible. In early 2020, Rivlin, author of Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.―How the Working Poor Became Big Business, among other books, set out to document how a handful of businesses dealt with the precipitous decline in customers, unrelenting mortgage and utility bills, and costs that escalated as supply chains faltered. Among others, these include Vilma's Hair Salon, Cusumano's Italian restaurant, Lech's Pharmacy, J.R.'s Hallmark, and Sol Cacao, a chocolate bar business. During the pandemic, owners worried about their employees and rethought their businesses. They navigated shifting shutdown orders and mask mandates and applied for financial assistance from the federal and state governments. Making matters worse was the lack of a "coordinated federal plan"; each state made its own rules. In addition, there were the constant threats posed by large restaurant and pharmaceutical chains, retail behemoths such as Walmart, and, of course, Amazon. These large corporations not only undercut their prices; they also gutted the downtown centers that brought in customers. Politicians might celebrate small businesses for being essential to living in a community and for embodying the independent spirit that ostensibly defines the American character, but economic policy always favors big business. That many businesses survived was due, in part, to the loyalty of employees and customers, the support of local business associations, and governmental grants and loans that carried them through the worst of the pandemic. For Rivlin, though, most important were business owners' "creativity and fortitude," the tenacity and improvisational talent to get the job done. Compelling stories at the intersection of entrepreneurial aspirations, personal obligations, and public policy.

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September 15, 2022
Journalist and author Rivlin explores the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on small businesses--those that typically thrive in small towns and rural communities. Rivlin spent time with many shop and restaurant owners across America, specifically those with two-to-two-dozen employees. He chronicles their trials and tribulations even before COVID, including competing with Walmart and Amazon and the seasonality of business. Businesses like pharmacies that didn't close during COVID had challenges like enforcing face-covering and social-distancing rules as well as vaccination policies. Restaurant owners like TJ of Cusumano's Italian expanded his offerings to Mexican cuisine and southern-style barbeque. By adding tents and serving people outside, he joined many restaurateurs who employed this model to stay afloat. Also, Rivlin tackles other issues such as small businesses lacking political influence because their tax base is small. Readers will find the complexities of being a small-business owner and other dynamics fascinating. They will feel the spirit of optimism and hope for small-business survival.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.