The other side of a culture of extreme duty is a culture of extreme shame. Its not the way for humans to live. We haven't yet seen the end of its self propagation.
7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#12> He said that 7-Eleven had offered to pay for his remaining inventory — owners are responsible for buying their own products from the company at wholesale prices This feels like an American MLM scam, just tuned to be actually profitable for the "owner" under normal conditions and therefore sustainable. (Is this normal for legitimate American etc. franchises too, or is this specific to Japan's setup?)
MLM has a specific definition which this doesn't meet. MLMs are businesses where the majority of your earnings come from the recruitment of new members into your downline rather than sale of a product. 7-Eleven doesn't offer referral bonuses for bringing a new member that are based on a percentage of that person's sales.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#13> He said that 7-Eleven had offered to pay for his remaining inventory — owners are responsible for buying their own products from the company at wholesale prices This feels like an American MLM scam, just tuned to be actually profitable for the "owner" under normal conditions and therefore sustainable. (Is this normal for legitimate American etc. franchises too, or is this specific to Japan's setup?)
In the US— It’s a lot cheaper for the franchisee to start than financing his own store. They also pay 50% of gross revenue and the store owners sometimes steal or manipulate the numbers/inventory. Internal theft and CC skimmers on outside gas pumps seems like a huge problem but I don’t know the exact numbers. Sometimes stores get shut down by corporate.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm an imperfect human being. I'm going to go through contact lens solution and put off replacing it until I squeeze the bottle late at night and nothing comes out. I'm glad there are people I can pay at any time of the day to fix my self-inflicted problem.
Sure, but it's not great fun for the person on the other side of the counter.
Most people don’t work for fun.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#15Aren't there a crazy number of convenience stores everywhere in Japan, and where not, there are vending machines? Also, I find something incredibly cozy about my city going to sleep at night. Almost nothing is open, not even most convenience stores, and I just find that so cozy.
I have weird, ever changing sleep schedules and know the feeling you're talking about, but could never survive if my city slept completely. I would go stir crazy, having no where to go and no way to complete daily tasks. In any built up city you're going to have enough people working nights that it makes sense to have at least some night culture that's not centered around partying.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#16Prior to World War II, Japan had massive syndicalist groups and labor unions that caused enough disruption to win universal male enfranchisement. Now, they have “black companies” working people to death with near impunity, while online mobs of right-wingers celebrate their behavior. Quite a horrifying trajectory.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but it's not great fun for the person on the other side of the counter.
Most people don’t work for fun.
I imagine you understood what I meant by "not fun", but ok. I suppose my view is, if you can't plan ahead for your trivial purchases, I don't really care. I'd rather just shut the store down and let you bemoan the fact that you can't buy snacks and Tylenol at 3am.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#18> He said that 7-Eleven had offered to pay for his remaining inventory — owners are responsible for buying their own products from the company at wholesale prices This feels like an American MLM scam, just tuned to be actually profitable for the "owner" under normal conditions and therefore sustainable. (Is this normal for legitimate American etc. franchises too, or is this specific to Japan's setup?)
MLM has a specific definition which this doesn't meet. MLMs are businesses where the majority of your earnings come from the recruitment of new members into your downline rather than sale of a product. 7-Eleven doesn't offer referral bonuses for bringing a new member that are based on a percentage of that person's sales.
Yes, I know that, I'm not claiming 7-Eleven is an MLM. I said it's like an MLM in this one way: many of them require that you buy a huge chunk of inventory up front whether or not you sell it, which is one of many abusive tactics of current American MLMs. (So is the actual multi-level bit.) See e.g. question 7 about "inventory loading" at https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/bus...
Mostly, this guy doesn't seem like an "owner" in the traditional sense to me - he seems to be unable to stock his shelves with inventory from other sources, and he certainly seems unable to set his own hours. He sounds like his work is directed by 7-Eleven. Another common scammy aspect of MLMs is convincing you that you're a small business owner on the path to future profits when you're one of many pawns of the actual business.
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#19Aren't there a crazy number of convenience stores everywhere in Japan, and where not, there are vending machines? Also, I find something incredibly cozy about my city going to sleep at night. Almost nothing is open, not even most convenience stores, and I just find that so cozy.
Convenience stores are prolific in Japan. I found travelling in Japan was like travelling on easy mode, because you could do almost everything last minute, including travel and accommodation. There were many days there where I woke up with no plan, half way through the day decided "Ah, this city looks nice", booked my train ticket 10 minutes before it departed and booked my hotel while in transit. Restaurants shut once you arrive? Not a worry, take your pick of a 7/11, Lawsons or Family Mart and get yourself stocked up to enjoy the city properly tomorrow.
Try that in Australia and you'll find yourself in a rental car with no petrol, in the middle of no where with no food!
Re: 7-Eleven Struck Back Against an Owner Who Took a Day Off
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people don’t work for fun.
I imagine you understood what I meant by "not fun", but ok. I suppose my view is, if you can't plan ahead for your trivial purchases, I don't really care. I'd rather just shut the store down and let you bemoan the fact that you can't buy snacks and Tylenol at 3am.
I personally find this a particularly cruel take. It implies that nobody is poor, nobody has accidents ever, like a spilled bottle of pills, and that there should be no capitalism at all. It's very confusing - if people are willing or want to start a business that is open at night, with a goal of supplying medicine, food, and other necessities during hours that other stores do not offer such services at all, it seems like they should be allowed to do that.
Calling medicine that is potentially life-saving purchases at 3am "trivial" is unnecessarily cruel even for HN. Yes, 7-Eleven sells a lot of medicine that can save someone's life that they might not "stock up on" because they have insufficient money to stock up on every possible medicine and plan for every possible event.