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OPINION Reader offers 'a big thank you' to fireman after crash Dear Editor, I would like to say a big thank you to the off- duty firem an who stopped to help me at the h it and ru n accident at the corner of M arlbor­ ough Court and T rafal­ gar Road on Dec. 1, 2017. Thank you for calling 911 and staying as a w it­ ness and talking to the police. Your help prior to emergency services a r ­ riving was very much ap­ preciated. I was not able to for­ mally thank you and would really like to meet with you again to do that. Jen n ife r Buckle Oakville Businesses aren't charities RE: Protesters at Oak­ ville HQ seek fairness for Tim Hortons workers, In- sideHalton, Jan. 15 Dear Editor, I find it disheartening that so many people don't understand how a busi­ ness works. A business's sole pu r­ pose is to meet specific need(s) in the m arket­ place such that its reve­ nue exceeds its costs. Its purpose is not to operate as a charity or a social service agency. The byproducts of a successful business add to the quality and sus­ tainability of the com­ m unity (ies) in which it operates. These include jobs for employees, tax­ es, licensing fees, etc. paid to municipal, pro­ vincial and federal gov­ ernm ents, not to m en­ tion the generous contri­ butions they make to the community. In Tim Hor­ tons case, there are a l­ most too many to m en­ tion. Governments, in turn , hopefully use the funds they collect for the good of the community. Targeting Tim Hor­ tons is unfair. What they are doing in response to a govern­ m ent dictating how much they m ust pay their employees is surely being done by a large num ber of other service sector employers where the m inimum wage is a significant labour cost. I'm curious if any of these protesters are also targeting companies such as McDonald's, Home Depot, Lowe's, W almart, etc. All of them have installed self-serve checkouts or ordering k i­ osks. Do you use them? If yes, you are contributing to a reduction in the need for paid staff, i.e. putting people out of work, if not now, certainly in the fu­ ture. I do not use them, encouraging the re ten ­ tion of paid staff posi­ tions. If you remember, self- serve kiosks initially ap­ peared several years ago, but their num ber waned until recently. I suspect their resurgence is due to people's increased comfort with using tech­ nology. Again, people choose to use this tech­ nology and in doing so put people out of work. It's the decisions peo­ ple make with their wal­ lets that ultim ately de­ cides the outcome. I'll use W almart as an exam­ ple. Over the last several years there were out­ cries in num erous com­ munities, including ours, when there was talk of a W almart store being built in the com­ munity. People moaned that it would h u rt local, small businesses or even cause them to close down. However, this would only happen if the bulk of these same peo­ ple exercised their free choice and chose to shop at Walmart. Guess what? W almart opened these stores and people flocked to them. In their own field they are almost as ubiquitous as Tim Hortons. Why? Because they successful­ ly operate a business that meets specific needs in the marketplace, pric­ ing being the main driv­ er. W hether you like it or not, Tim Hortons cannot unilaterally do nothing to control their labour costs, while their com­ petitors do. On a positive note, next time you're in a ser­ vice sector establish­ ment, let the m anager know if the actions of a specific employee or the group as a whole causes you to patronize their store over another. This lets the employer know that staff retention is im ­ portant. Staff retention typically results in bet­ ter pay and treatm ent. 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