A few weeks ago, a 7-11 employee was fired for violating the chain's dances-with-psychos policy. I fired off the following to their customer service address:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Mr Feliciano saved his own life and those of his customers, saved his store's money, and helped put a criminal in jail, despite the fact that the owner of his franchise took not even the precaution of a silent alarm.
And you thank him by firing him.
7-Eleven will be boycotted by 80-million-plus gun owners because of your idiotic, lamebrained policies. Imagine how much
money you're going to lose.
If you want to fix this situation, give Mr Feliciano his job back, a pay raise, a bonus, and a written apology. Otherwise,
your company can go to hell.
[/quote]
I just got the following response (let's play Spot The Logical Disconnects):
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick:
Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us and giving us the opportunity to respond. So often the news media do not tell the
whole story.
7-Eleven, Inc. is deeply committed to providing a safe working and shopping environment for its employees and customers. Toward this end, the company has developed training programs and procedures
based upon years of research and working with law enforcement agencies around the country.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency that regulates workplace safety, and the National Association of Police Organizations advise retailers to train store personnel in non-confrontational behavior if a crime occurs. OSHA recently conducted research, the organization reports and advises that the best way to avoid injury is to be non-confrontational during a robbery. Another study shows that robbery victims who resist are 49 times more likely to be killed than those who don't.
Consistent with this non-confrontational approach, one of 7-Eleven® stores' policies prohibits employees from aggressively confronting or resisting a robber. Many other retailers have similar policies.
Of course, this policy does not prevent employees from protecting themselves if attacked, which was not the case in Mr. Feliciano's situation.
The policy was developed for one reason and one reason only - to safeguard the well-being of store personnel and customers. The
most valuable assets in the store are our employees and customers, and we value the lives of each and every one. 7-Eleven stores'
management supports this in its training of store personnel to be non-confrontational when dealing with a would-be robber. The risk to the employee and others in the store is simply too great.
There have been situations at both 7-Eleven and other retail stores around the country where an employee tried to be a hero but that
effort failed. All too frequently, these employees were seriously injured or worse.
In the Martinsburg, W. Va., incident, the robber had a gun pointed at Mr. Feliciano's co-worker when Mr. Feliciano jumped the robber. While the ultimate outcome was good in that the robber was arrested, Mr. Feliciano might have put his co-worker's life at risk, if the robber's gun had gone off.
Mr. Feliciano had been trained in 7-Eleven store policies and had signed an awareness form acknowledging that violating a policy
could be grounds for discipline or dismissal.
Local 7-Eleven management put Mr. Feliciano on administrative leave with pay while we conducted a thoughtful and thorough review of the case. We talked with Mr. Feliciano, who said he would probably act the same way if the situation were to happen again. This leads us to believe he would not follow our procedures. Local management discussed the situation with 7-Eleven Inc.'s corporate office legal and operations executives. Afterwards, the decision was made to release Mr. Feliciano from his duties.
While this action may be unpopular with some people, 7-Eleven stands by its decision. We want to reinforce that we are serious about policies to deter crime and safeguard store personnel and customers.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
Janey Camacho
Manager, Consumer Affairs
[/quote]
Ms Camacho's email address is jcamach@7-11.com.
I wrote an extremely long and blistering reply to this bit of garbage, dissecting all of the fallacies point-by-point. I'm sure more of you could do the same, but nicer and shorter.
[This message has been edited by Coinneach (edited August 09, 2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Mr Feliciano saved his own life and those of his customers, saved his store's money, and helped put a criminal in jail, despite the fact that the owner of his franchise took not even the precaution of a silent alarm.
And you thank him by firing him.
7-Eleven will be boycotted by 80-million-plus gun owners because of your idiotic, lamebrained policies. Imagine how much
money you're going to lose.
If you want to fix this situation, give Mr Feliciano his job back, a pay raise, a bonus, and a written apology. Otherwise,
your company can go to hell.
[/quote]
I just got the following response (let's play Spot The Logical Disconnects):
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick:
Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us and giving us the opportunity to respond. So often the news media do not tell the
whole story.
7-Eleven, Inc. is deeply committed to providing a safe working and shopping environment for its employees and customers. Toward this end, the company has developed training programs and procedures
based upon years of research and working with law enforcement agencies around the country.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency that regulates workplace safety, and the National Association of Police Organizations advise retailers to train store personnel in non-confrontational behavior if a crime occurs. OSHA recently conducted research, the organization reports and advises that the best way to avoid injury is to be non-confrontational during a robbery. Another study shows that robbery victims who resist are 49 times more likely to be killed than those who don't.
Consistent with this non-confrontational approach, one of 7-Eleven® stores' policies prohibits employees from aggressively confronting or resisting a robber. Many other retailers have similar policies.
Of course, this policy does not prevent employees from protecting themselves if attacked, which was not the case in Mr. Feliciano's situation.
The policy was developed for one reason and one reason only - to safeguard the well-being of store personnel and customers. The
most valuable assets in the store are our employees and customers, and we value the lives of each and every one. 7-Eleven stores'
management supports this in its training of store personnel to be non-confrontational when dealing with a would-be robber. The risk to the employee and others in the store is simply too great.
There have been situations at both 7-Eleven and other retail stores around the country where an employee tried to be a hero but that
effort failed. All too frequently, these employees were seriously injured or worse.
In the Martinsburg, W. Va., incident, the robber had a gun pointed at Mr. Feliciano's co-worker when Mr. Feliciano jumped the robber. While the ultimate outcome was good in that the robber was arrested, Mr. Feliciano might have put his co-worker's life at risk, if the robber's gun had gone off.
Mr. Feliciano had been trained in 7-Eleven store policies and had signed an awareness form acknowledging that violating a policy
could be grounds for discipline or dismissal.
Local 7-Eleven management put Mr. Feliciano on administrative leave with pay while we conducted a thoughtful and thorough review of the case. We talked with Mr. Feliciano, who said he would probably act the same way if the situation were to happen again. This leads us to believe he would not follow our procedures. Local management discussed the situation with 7-Eleven Inc.'s corporate office legal and operations executives. Afterwards, the decision was made to release Mr. Feliciano from his duties.
While this action may be unpopular with some people, 7-Eleven stands by its decision. We want to reinforce that we are serious about policies to deter crime and safeguard store personnel and customers.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
Janey Camacho
Manager, Consumer Affairs
[/quote]
Ms Camacho's email address is jcamach@7-11.com.
I wrote an extremely long and blistering reply to this bit of garbage, dissecting all of the fallacies point-by-point. I'm sure more of you could do the same, but nicer and shorter.
[This message has been edited by Coinneach (edited August 09, 2000).]
I have been boycotting them for years just because of this!! Knowing this, you can see that their anti- gun stance is quite natural.(for them 
)