7-Eleven Emits Piercing Sound to Prevent Panhandlers

A 7-Eleven in Sacramento has installed speakers that emit a piercing noise to keep panhandlers away from the store.

The high pitch beeping is so loud is can be heard from across the street. Drivers and customers have complained about the noise and managers at the nearby Golden Coral restaurant say they’ve received several complaints.

“How can people work here and deal with that squeaking all the time? It would drive you nuts,” said 7-Eleven customer Richard Kellenberger.

It’s unclear if the device was installed by the franchisee or part of 7-Eleven’s corporate policy in dealing with panhandling.

7-Eleven Emits Piercing Sound to Prevent Panhandlers [Fox 40]

7-Eleven Takes Big Gulp Out Of American Dream

Via MintPress News

For South Asian immigrants to the United States, owning a 7-Eleven convenience store franchise has traditionally been a passport to the American dream.

The startup costs for a 7-Eleven franchise are low compared to fast-food and motel franchises — as little as $50,000. In a departure from the usual franchising model, the franchisor, 7-Eleven Inc., bears the expense of land, building and store equipment and also charges royalties based on the store’s gross profit, rather than a percentage of sales.

Last year, the National Minority Franchising Initiative included 7-Eleven in its annual list of the Top 50 Franchises for Minorities, commending its “exceptional record” of minority representation. Of the company’s franchise stores, the survey noted, 57 percent were minority-operated.

Just as the dry-cleaning industry is largely controlled by Korean-Americans, immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have gravitated toward 7-Eleven, said Jas Dhillon, the owner of 7-Eleven franchises in the Los Angeles-area communities of Porter Ranch and Pacoima.

“It’s proven to be a success,” he told MintPress News in an interview.

But in a lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court, a 7-Eleven franchisee group and five individual franchisees, including Dhillon, paint a very different picture, accusing Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc., which is now owned by a Japanese corporation, of “an aggressive and discriminatory campaign” against South Asian franchisees.

“[A] foreign corporation has been allowed to transform the American Dream into an American Nightmare for countless individuals and families,” the Franchise Owners Association of Greater Los Angeles and its co-plaintiffs allege.

The suit says 7-Eleven management, at the behest of Japan’s Seven & I Holdings Co., has harassed and intimidated franchisees and falsely accused them of wrongdoing “as part of a larger corporate effort to terminate their successful franchise stores and take the stores back at no cost. 7-Eleven then ‘churns’ or re-sells the stores, realizing a windfall profit [from] new franchisees.”

South Asians have been targeted, the plaintiffs say, because of “cultural vulnerabilities” including deference to authority and fear of being shamed if allegations of impropriety become public. In a separate case, Dilip and Saroj Patel, an elderly couple who owned a franchise in Riverside, California, allege they signed away their store in December 2013 after being subjected to an eight-hour interrogation by 7-Eleven “asset protection” investigators.

Continue reading 7-Eleven Takes Big Gulp Out Of American Dream [MintPress News]

This Week In Bizarre 7-Eleven Crimes

Police seek one-eyed man in connection with double killing at 7-Eleven [La Times]

Police: Gunman in killing shot woman through windshield [Fox 5]

Man drives to 7-Eleven, says wife set him on fire [Komo News]

Oakdale defendant in federal custody in child porn case [Modesto Bee]

Show of Force in Lincoln Park After Mom Pushing Stroller Robbed [DNAinfo]

California Franchisees Accuse 7-Eleven of Racial Discrimination

Via LA Times

A new organization of California 7-Eleven franchisees is suing the convenience store chain, alleging the company violated store operators’ civil rights through racial discrimination, as well as other complaints.

The Franchise Owner’s Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, along with other franchisee organizations, says it represents more than 1,200 members who are accusing 7-Eleven Inc. of racial discrimination, invasion of privacy and illegal surveillance and mistreatment.

The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles, is the latest list of allegations aimed at the Dallas company, which is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co. in Tokyo.

The group said it does not want any money from 7-eleven, but is asking for a court declaration affirming that 7-Eleven’s actions are in violation of both federal and California state laws.

More than a dozen franchisees around the nation have sued 7-Eleven in the last two years, claiming they were stripped of their stores illegally, without evidence and any compensation. Some plaintiffs say 7-Eleven targeted successful stores in high-traffic areas, then flipped them to new franchisees willing to pay the company higher fees.

Continue reading California Franchisees Accuse 7-Eleven of Racial Discrimination [LA Times]

Abominable 7-Eleven Disfigures a Baltimore Historic District

Via Baltimore Business Journal

It comes as no surprise that the opening of a convenience store selling almost nothing that anybody should eat or drink creates little excitement in the surrounding community.
Since this isn’t a food or health column, but one about urban design and architecture, I will focus on the wrapper in which a new Baltimore 7-Eleven is encased. The store opened in the spring at West Franklin and North Paca streets after just a few months of construction.

Like tourists wearing sombreros in Mexico or lederhosen in Bavaria, retail buildings often masquerade in garb inspired by local cliches — mission-style, colonial or anything in between. What constitutes a mere laughable nuisance in suburban shopping centers, however, becomes architectural assault in an urban historic district.

At first, seeing a barren surface parking lot being dug up by heavy equipment in late winter inspired hope in this corner of Baltimore’s west side, an area largely unaccustomed to investment and construction.

But the strip footing and tiny trenches for wastewater lines foreshadowed hastily erected spindly steel columns, confirming that whatever was being built here couldn’t be of any substance.

Disappointment turned into disbelief once all the sticks and beams were connected with astounding speed, revealing the shape of a giant shoebox, with the lid hovering one story above it.

That extra level mystified everybody around and became the talk at Trinacria Deli, a nearby restaurant, grocery and wine shop. No stairs led up to the lofty height, even though steel decking seemed to indicate a real second floor.

In quick succession, wall studs and window framing formed walls and horizontal punch-out openings on two levels. The overall appearance was that of a 5-year-old having decorated a sideways milk carton to look like a house.

Continue reading Architecture review: Abominable 7-Eleven Disfigures a Baltimore Historic District [Baltimore Business Journal]