Ever wondered how 7-Eleven makes money?

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I have. The way they carpet bomb city corners and sell only low margin lollies with labour manning the place until all hours. Here’s your answer, Fairfax:

Franchisees at the troubled 7-Eleven chain are charging staff up to $70,000 to help secure Australian work visas for their staff as a sideline revenue stream to help plump up low income from their stores.

Fairfax Media has uncovered evidence that some franchisees are running as one-stop recruitment shops providing a steady stream of heavily indentured students and other workers into 7-Eleven stores.

Foreign students as well as workers on 457 visas are understood to be part of the “visa factory” scam operated by some 7-Eleven franchisees. The model has franchisees charging workers $25,000 to $70,000 to sponsor them on a visa.

Under the scam, some student visa-holders are even enrolled in courses at colleges linked to 7-Eleven franchisees.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.