Translink Beholden to Big Biz?
International News is a small mom-&-pop shop on West 10th Avenue. It sells newspapers, magazines and lottery tickets and rents out videos. The husband and wife who have been operating the shop for about 10 years now work about 12 or more hours a day, 9 days a week.
Late this afternoon, we went in to buy a monthly bus pass. We were told by the owner that she wasn't allowed to sell bus passes - even though she has asked Translink repeatedly if she could do so - because Safeway is one block away and that would affect Safeway's business!
Safeway is an enormous multi-national corporation. They can't handle the competition in selling bus passes from a little news stand operation?
At the corner of 10th & Sasamat, which is half-way between International News and Safeway, there are 4 banks, one on each corner. In total, there are 7 banks within a block and a half. There are 3 bakeries and about 10 coffee shops, all competing with one another.
Of course, what would TRANSCLUNK know about competition? Or serving the community? Or supporting working men & women?
2 comments:
I guess in this case Translink has decided to appeal to a "higher power" that appears to have a foot-hold in selling their transfers. This just goes to show us that Translink, like any public entity can enforce a blatantly unfair policy against something as small as a mom-and-pop establishment.
Another item for us to mull over is that Translink with its infinite wisdom (or lack of) just technically killed the term convenience-store.
Ha! Well put!
Hydro is a similar offender. They have spent a small fortune praising various insitutions (UBC, for example)for being enrgy conscious greeny corporate citizens. But it turns out that all of the groups so praised are, in fact, huge clients of Hydro. They cannot be bothered thanking any of the many, many "smaller" institutions, public & private, that are equally good citizens.
As always, follow the money.
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