Facebook Photo Of Clerk In Freezer Leads To Store Closure

[TurnToStone]

Facebook Photo Of Clerk In Freezer Leads To Store Closure

by Beth on Monday, July 15, 2013

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When a young store clerk uploaded a photograph of himself inside a Lawson convenience store ice-cream cabinet in the height of summer, he probably thought everyone would find it funny.

But when the photo appeared on Facebook, it went viral, causing an unforeseen backlash that lead to Lawson firing the clerk and dissolving its franchise contract with the store — which just happened to be owned by the boy’s parents.

Netizens agree that his actions were inappropriate, but feel sorry for his parents’ loss of livelihood over a simple childish prank, while others argue that Japan has become too obsessed with hygiene.

From IT Media News:
Convenience Store Clerk Uploads Picture Of Himself Lying Inside Ice-Cream Freezer Cabinet On Facebook, Lawson Apologises, Dissolves Store’s Franchise Contract

When a photograph showing a member of staff inside the freezer cabinet that ice cream is sold from was uploaded on the internet, Lawson apologises, saying “This is completely unacceptable”.

A photograph showing a member of staff lying down inside an ice-cream freezer cabinet inside a ‘Lawson’ convenience store was uploaded to Facebook, causing upset, with comments such as ‘Isn’t that unhygienic?’. On July 15, Lawson apologised, saying ‘Since the freezer cabinet is used for handling foods, this behaviour is completely unacceptable”, revealing that they had dissolved the franchise contract with the store.

The problem photograph was of a young man lying down inside an ice-cream freezer cabinet in the store, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and was uploaded with comments from friends such as “You’re 22, dude, what are you doing!”, “Dare I say it! He’s trash!” It was discovered that the store was Lawson from a logo seen in the photograph.

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The photograph was posted on internet message boards, and information such as the details of the branch, and the fact that the boy in the photograph was the son of the people who ran the franchise was also posted online, and it began to trend. There were some commenters who said “I’ll never buy ice-cream from Lawson again”, and apparently there were a flood of complaints to the company.

According to Lawson, the branch is a franchise store in Kamobe, Kochi. After confirming whether or not the story was true, the freezer cabinet and the ice cream were removed, and (1) The franchise contract with the branch has been dissolved based on the stipulations in the contract; (2) The staff member inside the cabinet will be released from employment; other staff members will undertake re-training; (3) From 5pm on July 15, it is decided that the branch will be closed temporarily. We will inform customers of its re-opening when the decision is made.

The company stated that “We apologise sincerely for having made our customers feel upset and uncomfortable. We have reflected on the incident, and decided that this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable since the freezer cabinet is used for handling food. All of our staff and franchises will join together work hard in regaining the trust of our customers, so that something like this will never happen again.

Lawson’s apology to customers.
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