Small Business Struggles-Advisory

Small businesses around the world are in trouble. Whether they survive will affect not just economies but the fabric of communities as well. In the coming months, AP’s Small Business Struggles will examine how the pandemic is impacting small businesses in a dozen locations around the world. The next in the occasional series of narrative and photo storytelling will move Thursday, Oct. 15.

SMALL BUSINESS STRUGGLES-WINCHESTER — The viral pandemic has hammered small businesses across the United States — an alarming trend for an economy that’s trying to rebound from the deepest, fastest recession in history. Normally, small employers are a vital source of hiring after a recession. Small companies are struggling even in Winchester, Virginia, a city of 28,000 that works hard to promote and preserve local enterprises. Winchester designed traffic lights to make it easier to traverse downtown on foot than by car to encourage foot traffic at local businesses. But city planning is no match for a global pandemic. By Paul Wiseman. 1,600 words, photos. With an abridged version.