7-11 equals "small business"?

At my day job we played a role in San Jose passing the best takeout bag ban in the country for a major city - banning plastic and requiring highest recycled content that's currently feasible for paper bags.

I went to a number of meetings before yesterday's City Council showdown. The 7-11 retail chain mobilized against us, getting their franchisees to come to meetings and forecast economic ruin (also, claiming bans would make it easier for people to bring guns into the stores). At the Council meeting though, these people never identified themselves as part of 7-11, only "small business" managers and owners. Unfortunately I had already spoken so I couldn't call them on their little astroturf trick, but it didn't matter. They weren't convincing.