Main street – Impact Lab

By Futurist Thomas Frey

When Your Neighborhood’s Gain Is Main Street’s Loss

Dollar General just announced they’re opening 450 new stores in 2026. If one’s coming to your neighborhood, you might celebrate the convenience—cheap essentials within walking distance. Or you might mourn—another chain squeezing out local businesses, another step toward homogenized America where every town looks identical.

Both reactions are correct. Dollar General represents the paradox of modern retail: they’re simultaneously filling gaps left by dying Main Streets and accelerating Main Street’s death. Understanding this paradox reveals where retail is actually heading and what happens to the heart of American towns.

Some startup founders hesitated to apply for the SBA’s PPP loans because they feared Main Street businesses may need them more. Now, the pot of money has run out.

In the past few weeks, Silicon Valley startups have grappled with a confusing, ethical quandary: whether to take money from the government to weather the economic downturn brought on by coronavirus.

Congress passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on March 27, which included $349 billion in forgivable loans for small businesses to help avoid laying off employees. The Paycheck Protection Program, as it’s called, is run through the Small Business Administration, and the loan applications are processed by banks like Bank of America or Silicon Valley Bank. The SBA will forgive the loans if the recipient uses the money to help keep all its employees on the payroll for eight weeks.

Continue reading… “‘A moral dilemma’: Tech startups wrestled with taking coronavirus bailout loans”

Tag: Main street

Dollar General’s 450 New Stores: The Paradox of Main Street’s Savior and Destroyer

When Your Neighborhood’s Gain Is Main Street’s Loss

‘A moral dilemma’: Tech startups wrestled with taking coronavirus bailout loans