Is 7-Eleven My ?Neighbour?? ? The Business Ethics Blog

I live on the edge of Toronto?s Little Portugal. There are two corner stores in my neighbourhood. One is a 7-Eleven. The other is a small, family-owned convenience store. I shop at both stores from time to time ? to pick up eggs, bread, whatever.

Is there any ethical difference between shopping at 7-Eleven, on one hand, and shopping at the little Portuguese place, on the other?

At least some advocates of the ?buy local? movement would say I absolutely ought to shop at the locally-owned Portuguese place. After all, it?s a part of my community, whereas 7-Eleven is a multinational corporate entity. But wait?7-Eleven is a franchise. So even though the parent company isn?t local, the owners of the franchise very likely are. The owners of that franchise are just as much part of my community as the owners of the Portuguese place are?minus the franchise fee they pay to Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd. (Does that count?)

But still, the 7-Eleven, even if locally-owned, is still part of the 7-Eleven empire. When I shop at my 7-Eleven, I?m patronizing that empire. I am, to some extent, entering into a relationship with the parent company. So this question occurs to me: is Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd. in any sense my ?neighbour?, one to which (or to whom!) I owe the neighbourly obligation of shopping at their franchise?

Major corporations are increasingly expected to think of themselves as good neighbours, and as having obligations to local communities. But the ?neighbour? relation is generally thought of as being reciprocal, as are the duties it implies. If you are my neighbour, then I am your neighbour, and vice versa. So if 7-Eleven, and other major corporations, are expected to act as good a neighbour, should we all reciprocate, and act as good neighbours to them in turn?

I don?t have an answer to offer to this question. But I think the reciprocity that is normally a feature of the concept ?neighbour? ought to be part of the larger conversation about how we think of the role of business corporations not just in our economy, but in our communities.

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Source: http://businessethicsblog.com/2012/03/07/is-7-eleven-my-neighbour/

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