The ideas of what a business is and what roles the businesses should have within a society have changed dramatically in the past few decades. No longer does merely making a profit and appeasing stock holders qualify as enough to the customers and communities in which a company exist. Social responsibility represents the extra lengths businesses should take in order to sustain the relationship between their practices and the greater good of their surrounding world. Examining an example where social responsibility may need some work, we look at Company Q Grocery store. This small grocery store located in a major metropolitan area, with several stores across the city, has recently closed two stores within a particularly high-crime area and has reported monetary losses. The store has also opted out of participating in a local food drive by donating day old products to help the community, and instead would rather through away the food citing concerns to potential staff theft. Also a long awaited decision has customers somewhat excited about their now limited array of organic and health-conscious foods, which has been a request for some time. With these pieces of evidence, Company Q can definitely improve some of their outreach and social responsibility, and ultimately gain a better relationship with their customers and community.
Closing two stores in high-crime areas may have been viewed as a good business idea by the company themselves, but for those neighborhoods it has probably made the area less marketable. While the company reported losing money as the reason to close those stores, their other social actions lead to me to believe their motives were more perception and fear. If the stores were left open and a more vigilant effort to include social responsibility in their business model, there could have been a better community outreach and a chance for those areas to improve from the grocery store’s presence. Doing some market research and learning why they were losing money, they could have offered unique amenities it might not have had, such as their organic and health related foods. Before closing the stores the owners should have consider how their decision to move out would negatively affect the area, such as newly vacant lots, less availability to nutritious foods, and less employment for the local citizens. Being socially responsible means evaluating the cost of doing the right things for both your company and the community at large.
Company Q has made a very poor decision to reject the offer to participate in a local charity that gives back to the community in which they do business. By wanting to throw away the food rather than provide nutrition to poverty stricken people is such a detriment to their social responsibility reputation. And to also cite their worries that their own employees would be stealing that food instead of going to drop it off at the food bank represents the huge divide of trustworthiness between the owners and their staff. In order to mitigate some of their poor choices, the company should start their own companywide program that will not only help the local society, but start a campaign of respect and honesty among their employees. To both donate to the food bank and ensure