4 ms·

Shame on the New York Times for such a bs title. They care that he closed the store not that he took the day off. "Man loses franchising rights after violatin

Shame on the New York Times for such a bs title. They care that he closed the store not that he took the day off. "Man loses franchising rights after violating core aspect of the franchise brand" doesn't have the same ring to it I guess.

fzeroracer 7y ago
Shame on you for not reading the article. The entire point was that as a small franchise owner he has to work 24/7 on the clock every day of the week due to the company off-loading all of the risk and issues onto the owner. You don't see a problem with a company mandating that their employees work every single hour of every single day?
- austhrow743 7y ago
  >The entire point was that as a small franchise owner he has to work 24/7 on the clock every day of the week That's not the entire point of being a small franchise owner at all. He is allowed to have and has employees. He is supposed to run a schedule of them to keep the business staffed around the clock. That doesn't mean he has to personally be there for every single hour that it's open! How absurd. >off-loading all of the risk and issues onto the owner. There is no offloading of all risk and issues to the business owner. All risk and issues are already inherently the owners. That's what it means to be a business owner. It's how they earn their share of the venture. If things work out you can earn a lot more money than as an employee. If things don't then you crash and burn. That's what you signed up for when you created or bought a business. >You don't see a problem with a company mandating that their employees work every single hour of every single day? Sure I do. That's in no way what happened here though. He isn't the employee of 7 Eleven. He is a business owner who has leased their brand in exchange for agreeing to certain terms. He gets more customers because people trust that his business, as a 7 Eleven, will be open all of the time and in exchange he has to be open all of the time. And again, they don't want him personally there 24/7. Just his business open.
  - michaelt 7y ago
    > He is allowed to have and has employees. An article that was posted to HN last year [1] profiled several convenience store franchise holders who, it sounded like, weren't making enough money to afford employees. After all, if your country has 1.5 jobs per job seeker, raising wages; and you're only making $20 an hour of sales on the overnight shift, you're going to be losing money on that shift. Of course, you might argue that a business that marginal should just close down - but if you spent $$$$ setting up, stocking and advertising the store, which might have seemed a good investment before another store opened nearby cutting into your sales, the decision to close down might not be an easy one. It also says that 7-11 has an "area-dominant strategy" where, essentially, having a high density of franchise stores is their business strategy. That's in contrast to many franchises that include an area of exclusive territory, so there's one successful franchise rather than two struggling ones. [1] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/27/national/behind-scenes-24-7-service-realities-owning-japanese-convenience-store/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/27/national/behind...
    - Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
      > the decision to close down might not be an easy one. So what, we should adjust the laws, break the contracts and make everyone else jump hoops around him and give him special treatment because he has to make a difficult decision? This is not kindergarten, this is business.
- philtar 7y ago
  You make it sound like you don't know seven eleven is supposed to be open 24/7/365. That's their whole shtick. If the owner didn't like it he could have opened a normal grocery store. No one forced him to go to 7-11.
  - fzeroracer 7y ago
    And you sound like you didn't read the article, like the other poster I was responding to. The issue isn't necessarily that they're open 24/7. It's that they offload all of the risk and management of that onto their franchises. If a local 7-Eleven has trouble hiring people to work late night shifts, then the expectation is that the owner is supposed to work it 24/7. You MUST be open 24/7 every single day of the year and as the article demonstrates, shutting down for even a day means losing everything. I'm not surprised to see people on HN defend such incredibly hostile and toxic work environments, but I am disappointed. Why don't you try working such hours and see how things work out for you and your family?
    - derrikcurran 7y ago
      You seem to be under the impression that a franchisee is an employee of the franchisor. That is not the case. The franchisee lost his rights because he did not adhere to the terms of the franchise agreement. That's business. Nothing to see here.
    - Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
      > It's that they offload all of the risk and management of that onto their franchises. If a local 7-Eleven has trouble hiring people to work late night shifts, then the expectation is that the owner is supposed to work it 24/7. You MUST be open 24/7 every single day of the year and as the article demonstrates, shutting down for even a day means losing everything. Yes, that's how franchises work, if they have a requirement in the franchise agreement, you have to keep it. If you don't like it, don't buy the franchise.
- roel_v 7y ago
  Not to be snarky, but do you know what a 'franchise' is? I mean it seems from your comments in this thread that that would take away a lot of the confusion. This man is not an 'employee'.
- Markoff 7y ago
  nobody stops him to hire employees, if it's not worthy financially then just give up such business
larnmar 7y ago
What’s really odd is that this is an article at all. In a world where billions of things happen every day, how does a garden-variety franchisee contract dispute in Japan become an article in the New York Times?
- forgingahead 7y ago
  Because it helps one of the narratives they've been pushing for at least a decade: "business all bad, people being exploited, we are their/your champions", never mind any actual truth.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    There is so much exploitation going on that surely they can find something that's actual exploitation.
    - openfuture 7y ago
      If they did then they'd be ruffling feathers on some alpha predator they'd rather not piss off.

fzeroracer 7y ago

Shame on you for not reading the article. The entire point was that as a small franchise owner he has to work 24/7 on the clock every day of the week due to the company off-loading all of the risk and issues onto the owner. You don't see a problem with a company mandating that their employees work every single hour of every single day?

austhrow743 7y ago
>The entire point was that as a small franchise owner he has to work 24/7 on the clock every day of the week That's not the entire point of being a small franchise owner at all. He is allowed to have and has employees. He is supposed to run a schedule of them to keep the business staffed around the clock. That doesn't mean he has to personally be there for every single hour that it's open! How absurd. >off-loading all of the risk and issues onto the owner. There is no offloading of all risk and issues to the business owner. All risk and issues are already inherently the owners. That's what it means to be a business owner. It's how they earn their share of the venture. If things work out you can earn a lot more money than as an employee. If things don't then you crash and burn. That's what you signed up for when you created or bought a business. >You don't see a problem with a company mandating that their employees work every single hour of every single day? Sure I do. That's in no way what happened here though. He isn't the employee of 7 Eleven. He is a business owner who has leased their brand in exchange for agreeing to certain terms. He gets more customers because people trust that his business, as a 7 Eleven, will be open all of the time and in exchange he has to be open all of the time. And again, they don't want him personally there 24/7. Just his business open.
- michaelt 7y ago
  > He is allowed to have and has employees. An article that was posted to HN last year [1] profiled several convenience store franchise holders who, it sounded like, weren't making enough money to afford employees. After all, if your country has 1.5 jobs per job seeker, raising wages; and you're only making $20 an hour of sales on the overnight shift, you're going to be losing money on that shift. Of course, you might argue that a business that marginal should just close down - but if you spent $$$$ setting up, stocking and advertising the store, which might have seemed a good investment before another store opened nearby cutting into your sales, the decision to close down might not be an easy one. It also says that 7-11 has an "area-dominant strategy" where, essentially, having a high density of franchise stores is their business strategy. That's in contrast to many franchises that include an area of exclusive territory, so there's one successful franchise rather than two struggling ones. [1] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/27/national/behind-scenes-24-7-service-realities-owning-japanese-convenience-store/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/27/national/behind...
  - Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
    > the decision to close down might not be an easy one. So what, we should adjust the laws, break the contracts and make everyone else jump hoops around him and give him special treatment because he has to make a difficult decision? This is not kindergarten, this is business.
philtar 7y ago
You make it sound like you don't know seven eleven is supposed to be open 24/7/365. That's their whole shtick. If the owner didn't like it he could have opened a normal grocery store. No one forced him to go to 7-11.
- fzeroracer 7y ago
  And you sound like you didn't read the article, like the other poster I was responding to. The issue isn't necessarily that they're open 24/7. It's that they offload all of the risk and management of that onto their franchises. If a local 7-Eleven has trouble hiring people to work late night shifts, then the expectation is that the owner is supposed to work it 24/7. You MUST be open 24/7 every single day of the year and as the article demonstrates, shutting down for even a day means losing everything. I'm not surprised to see people on HN defend such incredibly hostile and toxic work environments, but I am disappointed. Why don't you try working such hours and see how things work out for you and your family?
  - derrikcurran 7y ago
    You seem to be under the impression that a franchisee is an employee of the franchisor. That is not the case. The franchisee lost his rights because he did not adhere to the terms of the franchise agreement. That's business. Nothing to see here.
  - Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
    > It's that they offload all of the risk and management of that onto their franchises. If a local 7-Eleven has trouble hiring people to work late night shifts, then the expectation is that the owner is supposed to work it 24/7. You MUST be open 24/7 every single day of the year and as the article demonstrates, shutting down for even a day means losing everything. Yes, that's how franchises work, if they have a requirement in the franchise agreement, you have to keep it. If you don't like it, don't buy the franchise.
roel_v 7y ago
Not to be snarky, but do you know what a 'franchise' is? I mean it seems from your comments in this thread that that would take away a lot of the confusion. This man is not an 'employee'.
Markoff 7y ago
nobody stops him to hire employees, if it's not worthy financially then just give up such business

larnmar 7y ago

What’s really odd is that this is an article at all. In a world where billions of things happen every day, how does a garden-variety franchisee contract dispute in Japan become an article in the New York Times?

forgingahead 7y ago
Because it helps one of the narratives they've been pushing for at least a decade: "business all bad, people being exploited, we are their/your champions", never mind any actual truth.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  There is so much exploitation going on that surely they can find something that's actual exploitation.
  - openfuture 7y ago
    If they did then they'd be ruffling feathers on some alpha predator they'd rather not piss off.