As is well known, during the pandemic recession firms directly exposed to the virus, i.e. the ``"contact" sector, contracted sharply and recovered slowly relative to the rest of the economy. Less understood is how firms that `"`won" by offering safer substitutes for contact sector goods have affected this unequal downturn. Using both firm and industry data, we first construct disaggregated measures of revenue growth that distinguish between contact sector losers, contact sector winners, and the non-contact sector. We show that contact sector losers contracted roughly fifty percent more than the sector average, while winners grew. Further, the data suggests that the gap between winners and losers persisted through 2022. To explain this evidence, we then develop a simple three sector New Keynesian model with (i) a sector of firms that offers safe substitutes for risky contact sector goods and (ii) a set of demand and supply shocks meant to capture the impact of the virus. Overall, the model accounts for the unequal sectoral recession. It also captures some of the runup in inflation.