Saving Main Street: Small Business in the Time of COVID-19

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.

A stunning work of investigative journalism, Saving Main Street goes beyond the headlines to document the real fight for the American Dream:

• Entrepreneurial Spirit Under Fire: Follow an unforgettable cast of characters—including restaurant owner TJ, salon operator Vilma, and gift shop proprietor Glenda—as they risk everything to adapt and survive.
• Government Policy in Real Time: An unfiltered look at how government policies, from lockdowns to the chaotic rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), helped and hindered the fight for survival.
• The Human Side of an Economic Crisis: Go inside the day-to-day chaos of the first eighteen months of the pandemic, from contentious elections to contradictory guidelines, and witness the personal and financial toll on ordinary people.
• Small Town America’s Last Stand: A powerful exploration of America’s Main Streets, examining the long-term trends, class fissures, and the enduring psychological battle between local shops and corporate giants.

“Everything you think you know about small business in America will be upended in this surprising and inspiring investigation of America’s Main Streets. You’ll be introduced to a remarkable, resilient group of small-business owners who somehow kept going through COVID. These are true entrepreneurs—far from the epicenter of Silicon Valley, but they know how to move quickly, pivot, and adapt to keep their enterprises alive.”  - Charles Duhigg, author of bestsellers The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better

“Gary Rivlin isn’t just a terrific journalist, he is an unusually empathetic one, who always gives readers a powerful sense of what his subjects are feeling and hoping and praying. It is this quality that makes Saving Main Street such a beautiful, memorable book. His stories of small-business people trying to survive the pandemic will break your heart—and fill you with joy.” - Joe Nocera, coauthor of All the Devils Are Here

"Compelling stories at the intersection of entrepreneurial aspirations, personal obligations, and public policy." - Kirkus Reviews

“An exhaustive exposé.” - Washington Post on Broke, USA

“Rivlin is a sharp observer and a dogged reporter. He is unerringly compassionate toward his subjects. . . . But Rivlin’s most valuable journalistic skill is his acute sensitivity to absurdity."    - Nathaniel Rich, New York Times Book Review, on Katrina

“A lean, taut narrative.” - USA Today on Katrina

“Deeply-reported, character-driven . . . not unlike the classics of its kind, such as And the Band Played On or The Warmth of Other Suns.” - Virginia Quarterly Review on Katrina

“A remarkable book. Rivlin re-creates the panic and heartbreak of small-business owners in the time of COVID, touching on everything from staffing issues to governmental hypocrisy to citizen rage, and always with an unwavering novelist’s eye. The result is the story of the way we live now: divided, shell-shocked, and picking up the pieces as best we can.”  - Joshua Ferris, author of A Calling for Charlie Barnes

“A scathing, important book, Broke, USA . . . includes one shocking anecdote after another.” - Joe Nocera, New York Times, on Broke, USA

“Mr. Rivlin brings to his subject a genuine gift for storytelling.” - Wall Street Journal on Broke, USA

“Rivlin is the consummate tour guide, quick with a memorable anecdote or telling - New York Times Book Review