COVID has resulted in bakeries across the country losing sales and shops closing their doors at record numbers. The baking community now has to adapt to the changing business landscape and members of the community are looking for ways to maintain sales and continue to bake. Amongst the many business saving tactics is the Paycheck Protection Program. The Paycheck Protection Program is the US government's response to the fast death of small businesses across the country. However, the Paycheck Protection Program is not going to save the baking community as it fails to reach the baking community and instead focuses its aid on the larger small business.
The Paycheck Protection Program touted its ability to save small businesses but failed in actuality. The PPP, while intended for small businesses, failed to reach those it was intended for. In a Vox article titled “The End of the American Dream,” Laura Entis highlights such faults of the PPP. She agrees that “the Paycheck Protection Program, which incentivized businesses to keep employees on staff by turning loans into grants if most of the money went to payroll. There were flaws from the start [of the Paycheck Protection Program].” The short-comings that she references are the PPP’s bias against small brick and mortar Mom and Pop shops. The PPP neglected such businesses that make up the baking community and the true small business of America. Concurrent with Laura Entis’ opinion, Ron Shevlin, in his article “The Paycheck Protection Program Will Disrupt Small Business Banking,” agrees that the PPP failed to aid America’s truly small businesses. Shevlin asserts “of the nearly 31 million small businesses in the US, roughly 25 million have no employees—and as such, not the type of companies the Paycheck Protection Program was designed to support.” Shevlin’s point agrees with the notion that the PPP missed in its monetary application. John Unrein, in his article “Amid the COVID-19 chaos Amid the COVID-19 chaos, a Retail Bakery Seeks Clarity Seeks Clarity,” explains the failures of the PPP through the anecdote of Jodi Burns, a bakery owner and member of the community. Unrein notes Burns’ difficulty using funds she received from the PPP due to the restriction placed on how businesses can use the aid. Bakeries and small businesses alike are required to spend the money predominantly on the payroll in an effort to lessen job loss. But, many members of the baking community like Ms. Burns are finding that the money is not enough and bakery owners are having to cut stuff just to maintain their shop fronts. The Paycheck Protection Plan while thought to be a potential saving grace for the baking community, the policy failed to give the baking community the support it needed during the financial drought onset by the pandemic.