Explain Thunderbird and Night Train Express- A Role Playing Exercise
E&J Gallow, the world’s largest winery, has just announced that it will stop selling its Thunderbird and Night Train Express wines in a rough neighborhood of San Francisco, called “the Tenderloin.” Thunderbird and Night Train Express are both inexpensive wines with an extremely high alcohol content. They are also some of the top-selling wines in this neighborhood. There are two sides to this issue:
1. SSS: Gallow decided to take these two wines off the shelves in this neighborhood after it met with an activist group called Safe and Sober Streets, “SSS.” SSS was formed by concerned citizens who say that drunks in this neighborhood created a menace to local families and law-abiding citizens. SSS argued that making such a potent wine available at a low cost was hurting the neighborhood
2. Local grocers and other retailers: This group thinks it is a terrible idea to take the wine off the shelves because it will hurt their businesses and families, many of whom have operated their family owned stores for generations. They argue that SSS is just trying to find someone to blame for the neighborhood’s problems. They also argue that taking the wine off the shelves in one neighborhood is only going to cause “the drunks” to go somewhere else and that it won’t ultimately solve the problem of alcoholism among many criminals and homeless people.
Question:
Pretend you work for SSS. In your initial post, argue why you think E&J Gallow has an ethical business responsibility to pull the wine from the shelves.
