The following is the Editor's weekly letter.

It’s a bit of an odd showdown when a storeowner defies a borough council by staying open 24 hours, but that’s exactly the case in Rutherford right now. Nasser Nasser, a North Haledon resident, has said his 7-Eleven at Jackson and Union avenues will stay open all night until his lawyers tell him otherwise, in spite of an ordinance the council passed banning 24-hour convenience stores.

The borough council insists the ordinance is directed at all convenience stores in town. Nasser claims the ordinance singles out his business.

And he’s right. There are no other 24-hour convenience stores in Rutherford, and the ordinance excludes the 24-hour Dunkin’ Donuts, which does not fall under the borough’s definition of "convenience store."

It’s part of the borough’s last-minute flip-flop. It knew the 7-Eleven was coming for six months. Nasser, who has been paying rent at the property since October, said at the time his attorney first contacted the building department about opening a store in Rutherford, they were told there were no restrictions on 24-hour stores.

Then, last month, a group of 300 neighbors raised a fuss. There was little the mayor and council could do to stop the store from opening—no formal permission on their part, and nothing before the planning and zoning boards.

So they crafted an ordinance to limit convenience store hours, which would ostensibly satisfy neighbors’ concerns about unsavory people hanging out in the parking lot and buying lottery tickets at 2 a.m., but also directly interfered with the central facet of the store’s business model.

Now Nasser is preparing to sue the borough to get the ordinance repealed. After he announced this at last week’s council meeting, the mayor asked him to be a "good neighbor" and not waste the borough’s resources in a protracted legal fight.

A hypothetical question: If you pumped tens of thousands of dollars into opening up a business, only to be told on the eve of your grand opening that the town no longer allows your definitive business hours, would you fight that decision?

The mayor and council do have an obligation to listen and respond to the desires of their citizens, and it’s a good thing they wanted to help the store’s neighbors. However, they should not use policy to solve every individual neighborhood issue. It was just a matter of time before a 24 hour convenience store wanted to move in. Maybe the Rutherford Downtown Partnership should have foreseen this and presented a proactive solution to the council.

Competition is the essence of American commerce. The consumers ultimately benefit when stores have to more rigorously cater to their needs. Time will tell if friendly service and popularity among neighbors will sustain the Manor Sweet Shoppe next door to the 7-Eleven. If it does survive, it’s a testament to good service and customer loyalty. If it doesn’t, there will be another vacant storefront in that commercial complex—and in that case, let’s hope the prospective business owners there get a warmer welcome than Mr. Nasser.