7-Eleven is known for paying low wages and selling Big Slurps. Now, the multinational wants to increase its already large profits by selling alcohol, too.
That’s bad news for the 31 communities where it wants to serve alcohol in its stores. And it’s potentially even worse news for the province’s economy.
Fortunately, we can still stop this terrible scheme before it even starts.
If you live in one of the 31 communities where 7-Eleven wants to start serving alcohol, you can file an objection with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) – you might even be invited to appear at a meeting or hearing.
The AGCO doesn’t give standings to organizations such as OPSEU/SEFPO, but our President and First Vice-President/Treasurer are both filing objections as individuals.
Their objections boil down to two main points:
- Evidence shows that private retailers can’t be trusted to keep alcohol out of the hands of under-aged teens – a large segment of 7-Eleven’s customer base.
- This might push open the door to all convenience stores being given the right to sell alcohol to take home, which would seriously hurt Ontario’s economy by driving up further the already considerable costs of alcohol use. More strain on our already overburdened hospitals. More lost productivity. And more overcrowding in our jails.
If you’d like to object to 7-Eleven’s liquor license, the deadline is March 11.
Click here to file your objection now.
OPSEU/SEFPO’s objection to the Alcohol and Gaming Corporation of Ontario
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/SEFPO) represents 170,000 front line public service workers in Ontario, including 13,000 front-line LCBO workers.
The union is fundamentally opposed to the expansion of private alcohol sales in the province and objects to all of the Liquor Licence applications being made by 7-Elevens in Ontario.
The crux of our objection is simple: alcohol is a controlled substance for good reason. Sold irresponsibly, it causes serious harm to individuals, families, communities, and the entire province.
The communities in which these 7-Elevens are located will be a less safe place if these licenses are granted and children and teens run the risk of encountering intoxicated people in some or all of these convenience stores. Or even worse, if they can obtain alcohol at these stores.
There is clear evidence that private alcohol retailers have lower safety standards than government retailers. As Ontario’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health notes: “In both British Columbia and Alberta, studies have found that private retailers are less likely than government-owned retailers to ask people who appear to be minors for identification.”
In Ontario, LCBO workers enforce liquor laws through a specific and accountable policy called “Check 25.” And at the store level, employees are encouraged to “Think 30”, meaning they verify age for anyone who looks under 30. LCBO workers record every challenge and the reason for the challenge, and those challenges are publicly reported in the LCBO’s annual reports.
In contrast, private retailers such as grocery stores are not required to track challenges and do not publicly report their record of challenges. 7-Eleven has issued no assurances that it would behave any differently.
The multinational has also not issued any assurance that it would not use its liquor licence to attempt to lower the pay of its already low-paid workers. With a liquor license, could the multinational – which was recently embroiled in a wage-fraud scandal – drop the wages of some of its Ontario workers from the $14.25/hour minimum wage to the $12.45/hour minimum wage for liquor servers?
For those two reasons alone, OPSEU/SEFPO objects to these license applications.
The union also objects for third reason, and it is even more significant.
7-Eleven may be attempting to refashion its stores into some something more like “restaurants,” but we believe these liquor license applications have another purpose: to help force open the door to take-home alcohol sales in all convenience stores across the province.
This would massively expand the availability of alcohol in Ontario.
As a large body of scientific and health research has shown, such an expansion would significantly hurt a large number of people, along with the entire provincial economy as a whole.
In summary, allowing 7-Eleven to game the Alcohol and Gaming Commission and lay the groundwork for alcohol sales in all convenience stores would:
- Increase the physical and emotional harm done to individuals and families, particularly in poorer communities.
- Increase the damage, injury, and death done by drunk driving.
- Damage the province’s economy through lost productivity and increased pressure on our already over-burdened public services, especially our overcrowded hospitals and jails.
The significant harms of increasing the availability of alcohol have been demonstrated in a number of studies and reports.
Here is a brief overview of some of those findings:
- Alcohol use carries massive financial costs to our economy. In Ontario, alcohol use costs roughly $5 billion a year — $1.5 billion in health care costs, $2.1 billion in lost productivity, $1.2 billion in criminal justice costs, and $.5 billion in other direct costs. Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction: https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2019-05/CSUCH-Canadian-Substance-Use-Costs-Harms-Ontario-Infographic-2018-en.pdf
- The costs of alcohol increase when the number of stores selling alcohol increases. “The number of outlets selling alcohol in a specific geographic area or per capita is often referred to as outlet density. Studies have found associations between increases in outlet density and higher rates of consumption by youth, property crime, injuries, violent crime and assault, homicides and impaired-driving fatalities.” CAMH Alcohol Policy Framework: https://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/pdfs—public-policy-submissions/camh-alcoholpolicyframework-2019-pdf.pdf?la=enandhash=6DCD59D94B92BBC148A8D6F6F4A8EAA6D2F6E09B
- The health harms of alcohol are disproportionately borne by people with lower socioeconomic status. For any given drinking pattern, people with lower socioeconomic status experience more alcohol-related harm. CAMH Alcohol Policy Framework: https://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/pdfs—public-policy-submissions/camh-alcoholpolicyframework-2019-pdf.pdf?la=enandhash=6DCD59D94B92BBC148A8D6F6F4A8EAA6D2F6E09B
- Neighbourhoods with lower socio-economic status have more private alcohol outlets, and those outlets are open longer. Following the expansion of alcohol sales to grocery stores in 2015 in Ontario, neighbourhoods with lower socio-economic status have more alcohol outlets within 1,000 metres, and those outlets keep longer hours. Alcohol Availability Across Neighborhoods in Ontario Following Alcohol Sales Deregulation, 2013-2017: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30998409/
- Workers in private alcohol outlets are less likely to ID people who look young. “In both British Columbia and Alberta, studies have found that private retailers are less likely than government-owned retailers to ask people who appear to be minors for identification.” CAMH Alcohol Policy Framework: https://www.camh.ca/-/media/files/pdfs—public-policy-submissions/camh-alcoholpolicyframework-2019-pdf.pdf?la=enandhash=6DCD59D94B92BBC148A8D6F6F4A8EAA6D2F6E09B
- Alcohol harm increased after Ontario grocery stores began selling alcohol in 2015. Alcohol-attributed emergency department visits increased 17.8 per cent, over double the rate of all other emergency department visits. The increase in alcohol-attributed emergency visits was 6 per cent higher in communities with grocery stores selling alcohol. The Association Between Alcohol Access And Alcohol‐Attributable Emergency Department Visits In Ontario, Canada, March 2019: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332084554_The_association_between_alcohol_access_and_alcohol-attributable_emergency_department_visits_in_Ontario_Canada
- There are more hospitalizations for alcohol than for heart attacks. Canadian Institute for Health Information, Alcohol Harm in Canada: Examining Hospitalizations Entirely Caused by Alcohol and Strategies to Reduce Alcohol Harm: https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/report-alcohol-hospitalizations-en-web.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0bZN9ReV_eIdwuU8jKeoOL-xBLoBXpILlUGiP20dK0DWceBDcQlQhXPdM
- Alcohol hospitalizations are a third more costly than average, largely because they are longer: 11 days instead of 7. Canadian Institute for Health Information, Alcohol Harm in Canada: Examining Hospitalizations Entirely Caused by Alcohol and Strategies to Reduce Alcohol Harm: https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/report-alcohol-hospitalizations-en-web.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0bZN9ReV_eIdwuU8jKeoOL-xBLoBXpILlUGiP20dK0DWceBDcQlQhXPdM
- When government monopolies are dismantled and the level of privatization increases, there is an increase in alcohol sales per capita, consumption and harm. In British Columbia, the increase in privatization (and retail alcohol density) was associated with an increase in alcohol-related mortality. Canadian Institute for Health Information, Alcohol Harm in Canada: Examining Hospitalizations Entirely Caused by Alcohol and Strategies to Reduce Alcohol Harm: https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/report-alcohol-hospitalizations-en-web.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0bZN9ReV_eIdwuU8jKeoOL-xBLoBXpILlUGiP20dK0DWceBDcQlQhXPdM
The evidence is clear. The expansion of alcohol sales to convenience stores would do significant damage in Ontario.
7-Eleven must not be allowed to bring this expansion one step closer to reality by becoming licensed to sell alcohol for in-store consumption.
Click here to file your objection now.