Amid Adversity, Downtowns Learned How to Survive

The pandemic is not over yet. Still, retail shop owners and restaurateurs in small downtowns across Massachusetts are starting to eye a post-pandemic future – and they’re hoping many of the successful emergency relief measures put in place to help them get through the COVID-19 crisis remain permanent features moving forward.

Retailers Shift on the Fly

Government stimulus programs so far have missed the mark, retail industry groups say, leaving small merchants to build their own life rafts and search for safe harbors in the COVID-19 economic crisis.