Years ago, a man moved from Bangladesh to Boston and dreamed of opening his own business. He worked hard and eventually owned a 7-Eleven franchise and store. He lost the franchise after a series of disagreements with the company. After years of legal wrangling, he started a new venture: A store down the street called 6-Twelve.
Like the original 7-Eleven stores, the store’s name describes its hours. The subtext, though, is the owner’s seething hatred of 7-Eleven. He wants the store across the street that used to be his to close.
He explained to the Boston Globe that the dispute was over what he could sell in his store. Specifically, he didn’t want to sell hot food, claiming that the products didn’t sell.
“They’d sit there on the rollers, no one would buy them, and every day I would throw out $200 to $300 worth of food that I had to pay for,” he complained to a Globe reporter. He was told to sell chicken wings and pizza and have employees at the hot foods counter that he didn’t want in the first place.
The company revoked his franchise, accusing him of cash register shenanigans, and he launched his war and the new store after settling with 7-Eleven for an undisclosed amount. Loyal customers walk past his old store to shop at 6-Twelve instead.
One former customer of the 7-Eleven store first saw the store after getting new glasses, and wondered whether there was something very wrong.
“That’s the guy from 7-Eleven. This store is called 6-Twelve,” he told the Globe. “And my prescription must be wrong.”
Another customer said that he comes to 6-Twelve to support an underdog.
“This feels like an American success story,” he told the Globe. “Corporate pushed him out, so he went right across the street and opened his own shop. What’s not to love?”
There’s bad news in the owner’s war on 7-Eleven on a national scale, though: The chain purchased Sunoco’s gas stations and convenience stores, and will have thousands more stores across the country.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist