|
|---|
|
| External Links |
|---|
|
Official Site: 7-Eleven.com
Wikipedia: 7-Eleven |
| Page Sections |
|
History
Article Index |
History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's 7-Eleven page on 2 April 2022, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
7-Eleven, Inc. (stylized as 7-ELEVEn) is an American chain of convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas in the U.S. state of Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. After 70% of the company was acquired by an affiliate Ito-Yokado in 1991, it was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings.
7-Eleven operates, franchises, and licenses 78,029 stores in 19 countries and territories as of November 2021.
The company's first outlets were in Dallas, named "Tote'm Stores" because customers "toted" away their purchases. Some stores featured "native" totem poles in front of the store. In 1946, the chain's name was changed from "Tote'm" to "7-Eleven" to reflect the company's new, extended hours, 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, seven days per week. In November 1999, the corporate name of the US company was changed from "The Southland Corporation" to "7-Eleven Inc."
In 1927, Southland Ice Company employee John Jefferson Green began selling ice, then he started selling eggs, milk, and bread from one of 16 ice house storefronts in Dallas, with permission from one of Southland's founding directors, Joe C. Thompson Sr. Although small grocery stores and general merchandisers were available, Thompson theorized that selling products such as bread and milk in convenience stores would reduce the need for customers to travel long distances for basic items. Thompson eventually bought the Southland Ice Company and turned it into the Southland Corporation, which oversaw several locations in the Dallas area.
In 1928, a manager named Jenna Lira brought a totem pole as a souvenir from Alaska and placed it in front of her store. The pole served as a marketing tool for the company, as it attracted a great deal of attention. Soon, executives added totem poles in front of every store and eventually adopted an Alaska Native-inspired theme for their stores. Later on, the stores began operating under the name "Tote'm Stores". In the same year, the company began constructing gas stations in some of its Dallas locations as an experiment. Joe Thompson also provided a distinct characteristic to the company's stores, training the staff so that people would receive the same quality and service in every store. Southland also started to have a uniform for its ice station service boys. This became the major factor in the company's success as a retail convenience store.
In 1931, the Great Depression affected the company, sending it toward bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the company continued its operations through re-organization and receivership. A Dallas banker, W. W. Overton Jr., also helped to revive the company's finances by selling the company's bonds for seven cents on the dollar. This brought the company's ownership under the control of a board of directors.
In 1946, in an effort to continue the company's post-war recovery, the name of the franchise was changed to 7-Eleven to reflect the stores' new hours of operation (7 am to 11 pm), which were unprecedented at the time. In 1963, 7-Eleven experimented with a 24-hour schedule in Austin, Texas, after an Austin store stayed open all night to satisfy customer demand. Later on, 24-hour stores were established in Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1971, Southland acquired convenience stores of the former Pak-A-Sak chain owned by Graham Allen Penniman Sr. (1903–1985), of Shreveport, Louisiana.
With the purchase in 1963 of 126 Speedee Mart (all already open 7–11) franchised convenience stores in California, the company entered the franchise business. The company signed its first area licensing agreement in 1968 with Garb-Ko, Inc. of Saginaw, Michigan, which became the first U.S. domestic area 7-Eleven licensee.
In the late 1980s, Southland Corporation was threatened by a rumored corporate takeover, prompting the Thompson family to take steps to convert the company into a private model by buying out public shareholders in a tender offer. In December 1987, John Philp Thompson Sr., the chairman and CEO of 7-Eleven, completed a $5.2 billion management buyout of the company. The buyout suffered from the effects of the 1987 stock market crash and after failing initially to raise high yield debt financing, the company was required to offer a portion of stock as an inducement to invest in the company's bonds.
Various assets, such as the Chief Auto Parts chain, the ice division, and hundreds of store locations, were sold between 1987 and 1990 to relieve debt incurred during the buyout. This downsizing also resulted in numerous metropolitan areas losing 7-Eleven stores to rival convenience store operators. In October 1990, the heavily indebted Southland Corp. filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to transfer control of 70% of the company to Japanese affiliate Ito-Yokado.
Southland exited bankruptcy in March 1991, after a cash infusion of $430 million from Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan. These two Japanese entities now controlled 70% of the company, with the founding Thompson family retaining 5 percent. In 1999, Southland Corp. changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc., citing the divestment of operations other than 7-Eleven. In 2005, Seven-Eleven Japan made a tender offer and 7-Eleven, Inc. became its wholly owned subsidiary. In 2007, Seven & i Holdings announced that it would be expanding its U.S. operations, with an additional 1,000 7-Eleven stores in the U.S.
For the 2010 rankings, 7-Eleven climbed to the No. 3 spot in Entrepreneur magazine's 31st Annual Franchise 500, "the first and most comprehensive ranking in the world". This was the 17th year 7-Eleven was named in the top 10.
Also in 2010, the first "green" 7-Eleven store opened in DeLand, Florida. The store features U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) elements. Also, the environmentally friendly design brings the store savings in energy costs. That same year, 7-Eleven went mobile with the launch of the Slurpee drink's iPhone and Android Application (App). The Slurpee drink app made it easy to find 7-Eleven stores and provides driving directions. The following year, 7-Eleven celebrated its 40,000th store opening and within two years of that milestone opened its 60,000th store.
In 2020, 7-Eleven announced it would purchase Speedway for $21 billion.
In 2021, 7-Eleven rolled out a $70 million ad campaign, their largest investment in advertising in years, doubling their market spending from the previous year. The commercials, directed by Harmony Korine, are to reflect the "evolution" of the chain's store format, drawing attention to, in part, the fact that "this isn't just gas station food, there's real restaurant quality food at 7-Eleven", according to CMO Marissa Jarrantt.
| Date | Article | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 29 March 2018 | FTC Approves Final Order Imposing Conditions on 7-Eleven’s Acquisition of Nearly 1,100 Retail Fuel Outlets from Competitor Sunoco According to the complaint, the acquisition as proposed by Seven & i Holdings Co. would harm competition in 76 local markets across 20 metropolitan statistical areas. | Press Release (text) Agency: FTC Topics: 7-Eleven, Sunoco |
| 14 May 2021 | Statement from FTC Acting Chairwoman Slaughter and Commissioner Chopra on 7-Eleven/Speedway Merger Parties move forward with illegal transaction which could impact competition and cause prices to soar at gas stations and convenience stores across the U.S. | Press Release (text) Agency: FTC Topics: 7-Eleven, Speedway |
| 25 June 2021 | FTC Orders the Divestiture of Hundreds of Retail Stores Following 7-Eleven, Inc.’s Anticompetitive $21 Billion Acquisition of the Speedway Retail Fuel Chain Proposed order prohibits 7-Eleven from enforcing noncompete provisions for franchisees or employees working at or doing business with divested assets. | Press Release (text) Agency: FTC Topic: 7-Eleven, Speedway |
| 10 November 2021 | FTC Approves Final Order Requiring Divestitures of Hundreds of Retail Gas and Diesel Fuel Stations Owned by 7-Eleven, Inc. Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that 7-Eleven’s acquisition of Marathon’s Speedway subsidiary violated federal antitrust laws. | Press Release (text) Agency: FTC Topics: 7-Eleven, Speedway |