7-Eleven
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see 7-Eleven (disambiguation).
| 7-Eleven, Inc. (SEVEN-ELEVEN, SEJ) |
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| Type of Company | Indirect subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Company, a Japan-based organization. |
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| Founded | Oak Cliff, Texas, USA (1927) |
| Headquarters |  2-8 Nibancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan 102-8452 2711 North Haskell, Dallas, Texas, USA 75204 |
| Key people | Toshifumi Suzuki, Chairman Joseph M. DePinto, President/CEO Masa Asakura, EVP/COO |
| Industry | Retail (Convenience stores) |
| Products | Slurpee® Beverage Big Gulp® Beverage Cup |
| Revenue |  $10.882 billion USD (2003) |
| Employees | 31,500 (2004) |
| Parent | Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd. (株式会社セブン&アイ・ホールディングス) |
| Slogan | Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven |
| Website | www.7-eleven.com www.7andi.com |
7-Eleven is an international franchisor, licensor, and operator of the largest chain of convenience stores in eighteen countries including: Canada, United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico in the Americas; Norway, Sweden and Denmark in Europe; Taiwan (Republic of China), People's Republic of China (China), Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan in East Asia; the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in Southeast Asia; and also Turkey and Australia.
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[edit] History
The company was founded in Oak Cliff, Texas, USA, which is now part of Dallas, USA, in 1927, and started to use the 7-Eleven name in 1946; 7-Eleven purchased a chain of stores in 1964 called "Speedee-Mart", which initiated the company's entry into franchising. Supermarket chain Ito-Yokado, which operates 7-Eleven stores in Japan, purchased the majority interest of The Southland Corporation in 1991. In 1999, The Southland Corporation changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc.
Initially, these stores were open from 7 am to 11 pm, which was unprecedented at the time, hence the name; however, most 7-Eleven stores are now open twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. 7-Eleven's most popular private label products include: Slurpee, a partially frozen carbonated and non-carbonated beverage, available in a number of flavors, and the Big Gulp super size soft drink in 32, 44, 52(Xtreme Gulp), and 64 (American) fluid ounce sizes. In 2005, 7-Eleven introduced their largest soft drink product, the 128 fluid ounce (1 gallon) Team Gulp.
In November of 2005, Seven & I Holdings Co. completed the purchase of 7-Eleven, Inc., turning the American publicly traded conglomerate into a publicly traded Japanese conglomerate. Seven-Eleven Japan is itself a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings, which also owns the Japanese Denny's chain of restaurants and Ito-Yokado.
[edit] 7-Eleven around the world
[edit] Australia
The first 7-Eleven in Australia opened in 1977. There are currently 361 stores in the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, the majority of stores are in metropolitan areas. Stores are owned operated as franchises, with a central administration. It has often been noted that the amount of 7-Eleven's located in the Melbourne CBD is excessive as there are many areas which there are multiple 7-Eleven stores within only a few metres of each other. [1] The City of Brisbane, Australia has the most 7 Eleven Stores within the CBD, a total of 46 stores is located within a 3km radius of the Brisbane CBD. Within George Street (Major City Street) there are 4 stores alone, and in Adelaide Street there are 2 stores being located on each corner of an intersection.
[edit] Canada
In Canada, a limited number of 7-Eleven locations have gas stations with gasoline distributed by Shell Canada or Petro-Canada, and some are combined with an Esso. In November of 2005, 7-Eleven started offering a wireless service called 7-Eleven Wireless.
Winnipeg, Manitoba has had the honor of being designated the "Slurpee Capital of the World" for the past seven years.
In London, Ontario, all but one of their stores, the land is leased from Petro-Canada. Most recently Petro-Canada has decided not to renew the leases for the land when they expire.
At Vancouver International Airport, there is a 7-Eleven outlet, the only one in an airport in Canada.
[edit] Hong Kong and Macau
7-Eleven has operated in Hong Kong since 1981 under the ownership of Dairy Farm. The company opened its 711th Hong Kong store July 11 (7-Eleven Day), 2006 in the Causeway Bay district of the city[2]. With most locations being in urbanized areas, approximately 40 percent are franchised stores. In September 2004, Dairy Farm acquired Daily Stop, a convenience store chain located mainly in the territory's MTR and KCR stations, and converted them to 7-Eleven stores immediately upon takeover.
7-Eleven in Hong Kong offers items such as food, beverages, newspapers, magazines, medicine and cigarettes. Sandwiches, pizza, microwaveable Dim Sum, meal boxes and other Chinese-style snacks are available for purchases. Extra in-store services include the sale of postage stamps, recharging Octopus Cards, ATMs and automated bill payments.
7-Eleven entered the Macau market in 2005, and now has more than 20 stores in operation.
Circle-K, another chain of convenience stores with about 250 Hong Kong stores, is a direct competitor of 7-Eleven in the area.
[edit] Japan
Japan has more 7-Eleven locations than anywhere else in the world, where they often bear the title "7&iHoldings". Of the 28,123 stores around the globe, 10,868 (39%) of them are located in Japan. 1,396 are in Tokyo alone. The reason for the large number of 7-Eleven stores in Japan is because there were no "western style" convenience stores before international chains opened in the late 1970s. Even today, convenience store chains vastly outnumber family-run convenience stores. Due to its popularity, 7-Eleven stores are colloquially referred to as "Seven" by Japanese people.
The feel and look of the store is somewhat different from that of the U.S. 7-Elevens in Japan offer a wider selection of products and services. Japanese 7-Elevens offer not only food, drinks, and magazines, but also video games and consoles, music CDs, DVDs, digital cardreaders as well as seasonal items like Christmas cakes, Valentine's Day chocolates, and fireworks. Customers can also pay for utilities, buy concert tickets, and withdraw money from their bank accounts using the ATM. Slurpees and Big Gulp super size soft drinks are no longer sold in Japan; these products were not popular when 7-Eleven originally opened in Japan. Instead, hot and cold cans of coffee and cans and bottles of various teas are popular. Food sold includes Japanese as well as Western items. In the refrigerator case are onigiri, udon, sushi, salad, microwaveable burritos, sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and bento. Stores offer to heat up microwavable food on the premises and provide complimentary chopsticks or western style cutlery. On the shelves are instant ramen and other dried noodles, bread and rolls, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and other condiments, chocolate and other sweets, and snack foods such as potato chips. From warmers, the store provides hot foods like oden, corn dogs and large Chinese meat buns. Physically, almost every Japanese 7-Eleven is laid out in a similar way, with the magazine racks facing a long storefront window. This is intended to prevent patrons from loitering and reading the magazines and comic books by making them visible to people outside the store.
On September 1, 2005, Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd., a new holding company, became the parent company of 7-Eleven, Ito Yokado, and Denny's Japan.
[edit] Malaysia
7-Elevens in Malaysia are owned by Convenience Shopping Sdn. Bhd. (CSSB) which operates about 700 stores. 7-Eleven in Malaysia was incorporated on June 4, 1984. 7-Eleven has operated for over 20 years in Malaysia. 7-Elevens in Malaysia are operated by Berjaya Group.
Almost all of the 7-Eleven stores in Malaysia operate 24-hours a day and 7 days a week. Presently there are even 7-Eleven stores located within Petrol Stations like Projet. A popular beverage sold here is Slurpees with the largest-sized cup sold for RM 2.20 each.
[edit] Philippines
In the Philippines, 7-Eleven is the market leader for convenience stores. It has more than 275 stores scattered around Luzon, most of which are in Metro Manila. It is run by the Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC) where the first store opened was in 1984. In 2000, President Chain Store Corporation (PCSC) of Taiwan, also a licensee of 7-Eleven, bought the majority shares of PSC and thus formed a strategic alliance for the convenience store industry within the region.
[edit] Scandinavia
The owner of the master franchise for 7-Eleven in Scandinavian is Reitan Servicehandel, a part of the Norwegian retail group Reitangruppen. All stores are franchised, and 7-Eleven often tries to place the stores on corners in city centers. After Reitangruppen bought the gas station chain HydroTexaco (now YX Energy) in Norway and Denmark in 2006 it has announced that several of the stores at the gas stations will be rebranded 7-Eleven, others will remain under the YX-concept.
In Norway, the first 7-Eleven was opened at Grünerløkka in Oslo on September 13, 1986. As of October 2006, there are 105 7-Eleven stores in Norway, more of half of these are in Oslo. Norway has the northernmost 7-Eleven in the world, situated in Tromsø. After meeting heavy competition in Oslo from Deli de Luca the first years of this millennium, 7-Eleven has upgraded a large number of stores to a far more attractive concept the last three years.
The first Danish 7-Eleven was opened in Østerbro on September 14, 1993. As of the end of 2005, there were over 55 stores, mostly in Copenhagen, Århus, Aalborg and Odense. From 2005 stores were also located in shopping malls.
Reitan Servicehandel Sverige has the license in Sweden. In the mid-90's, 7-Eleven in Sweden received bad publicity, resulting in many stores being sold and closed down. For a time there were only 7-Elevens in Stockholm and Gothenburg. 7-Eleven returned to the south of Sweden in 2001 when a convenience store opened in Lund. As of 2005 there are 73 7-Elevens in Sweden: 55 of them in Stockholm, 16 in Gothenburg, two in Lund, two in Helsingborg and one in Malmö.
[edit] Singapore
In Singapore, 7-Eleven forms the largest chain of convenience stores islandwide. There are at present 403 7-Eleven stores scattered throughtout the country. Stores in Singapore are operated by the Dairy Farm Group, franchised under a licensing agreement with 7-Eleven Incorporated, headquartered in the United States.
The first 7-Eleven stores in Singapore were operated in 1983 with a franchise license under the Jardine Matheson Group. The license was then acquired by Cold Storage Singapore, a subsidiary of the Dairy Farm Group, in 1989. At present, 7 Eleven plans to expand its base to include 300 stores, within the next few years. 7-Eleven has also recently signed an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell to include its convenience stores in all Shell Petrol Stations.
All the 7-Eleven stores in Singapore operate round the clock, except for stores in hospitals and MRT Stations, which have shorter operating hours. 7-Eleven Singapore has four proprietary products. They are Big Gulp, Slurpee, Mr Softee (soft serve ice cream), and Quickbites (Light finger food).
[edit] Taiwan (Republic of China)
In Taiwan, the 7-Eleven is the most popular convenience store, and is owned by The President Chain Store. The first store opened in 1980 and since then has grown to cover 4037 stores as of 2006 [3]. In fact, behind Japan and the United States, Taiwan has the world's third largest collection of 7-Eleven convenience stores. Actually, even this figure doesn't do justice to the popularity of this chain there. Considering that Taiwan's total population is much smaller than either that of Japan or the USA, if you divide each country's population by the number of 7-Eleven's, this gives Taiwan the leading edge at 6200 potential shoppers for each 7-Eleven convenience store. The difference is easy to see compared to Japan being second (14946 potential customers for each 7-Eleven) and America third with 48359 customers for each store. The Taiwanese often say that there is a 7-Eleven "around every street corner" in the city (indeed, it is possible to stand at one 7-Eleven and see another one or two on the street), while in the United States you might have to travel over a mile or so to find another of the same store. Taiwan stores do not offer Big Gulp sodas. Slurpees are rare and are only present in a handful of locations throughout Taiwan. Stores also feature local specialities, such as tea eggs and ramen noodles.
In fact, 7-Eleven is often located adjacent to COSMED (a drugstore similar to and competing with Watson's) and Starbucks, forming a triplex of independent stores all operated by the President Chain Stores.
[edit] Thailand
The franchise in Thailand is the Charoen Pokphand Group, which in turn grants franchises to operators. There are close to 4,000 7-Elevens in Thailand (as of July 2006), of which more than 1,000 are in Bangkok, making Thailand having the 4th largest number of stores after the US, Japan and Taiwan. Monthly Bills can be paid thru Counter-Service system inside the store. Low-cost airlines plane tickets were also available inside the store. 7-eleven was the first to accept Smart Purse (a touch and pay card similiar to Octopus card in Hong Kong)
[edit] United States
In the United States, many 7-Eleven locations used to have gas stations with gasoline distributed by Citgo, which in 1983 was purchased by Southland Corporation (and 50% of Citgo was subsequently sold in 1986 to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. and the remaining 50% in 1990). Although Citgo was the predominant partner of 7-Eleven, other oil companies are also co-branded with 7-Eleven, including Fina, Exxon, Marathon, BP, and Pennzoil. Alon USA is the largest 7-Eleven licensee in North America. The latter of the group signed an agreement to cobrand with 7-Eleven at their remaining gas stations in 2003 following Shell's takeover of Pennzoil-Quaker State the year before.
The only independently owned 7-Eleven stores are located in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma metropolitan area. About 100 stores are owned by the family of Bill Brown under special arrangement with the company since 1953. These stores carry a slightly different product selection than other 7-Eleven stores in the US. They do not serve hotdogs or nachos but have their own bakery called Seventh Heaven.[1] Also, due to this agreement, they carry a non-7-Eleven branded product in lieu of the Slurpee, the Icy, which is not to be confused with the ICEE.[2] The one side effect to this arrangement is that national advertising campaigns and promotions (e.g. movie marketing tie-ins) cannot be used.
In many U.S. states, 7-Eleven is the only large stand-alone convenience store chain in operation, and is thus synonymous with the term "convenience store" (see genericized trademark).
In 1987, Southland acquired High's Dairy Stores of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., many of which were converted to 7-Elevens.
Once ubiquitous, 7-Eleven stores are no longer found in some Midwestern states. In May 1998, it was announced that 113 7-Eleven stores would be sold and converted into Kum & Go stores. Other 7-Elevens, especially those in larger cities like Minneapolis-St Paul, closed. In states like Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, other convenience stores like SuperAmerica, QuikTrip, Kwik Trip, Casey's, and Speedway occupy the same market. In the Pennsylvania market—a market noted for innovation within the convenience store industry—7-Eleven competes with Turkey Hill, Wawa from the Philadelphia area, and Sheetz from Altoona.[3]
In late 2005, the company began building a new headquarters in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas. Since 1988, the headquarters had been at Cityplace Tower in the Cityplace neighborhood of Oak Lawn, near Uptown.
In early 2006, Citibank began operating 7-Eleven ATMs. This eliminated transaction fees for Citibank customers.
On August 10, 2006, 7-Eleven announced that it had acquired the 261-store White Hen Pantry chain in metropolitan Chicago and Boston.
On September 27, 2006 7-Eleven announced its 20-year contract with Citgo was coming to an end and would not be renewed. 7-Eleven Spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president. Certainly Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to stay with Citgo." Later she said that "People are making it out to be more than it is" [4] [5] Citgo's Chief Executive Felix Rodriquez responded with a correction the following day, accusing 7-Eleven of exploiting the situation to score political points against Chavez, and pointing out that Citgo's decision to terminate the contract with 7-Eleven had been made back in July, for practical and economic reasons: “[The reports are] a manipulation because ever since the month of July have we announced that we did not intend to renew a contract with [7-Eleven], which was 20 years old and that was part of a bad business deal for Venezuela." [6] A statement found on Citgo's homepage [7] states, "The 7-Eleven contract did not fit within CITGO's strategy to balance sales with refinery production after the sale of its interest in a Houston area refinery."
[edit] 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless
Speak Out Wireless is a pre-paid phone service where a cellphone can be purchased directly from a 7-Eleven store and activated on the spot. The service has been available since 2005 in the US and Canada.
[edit] In media and popular culture
- In Back To The Future Part III, the protagonist Marty participated in a shooting game at a town festival and shot down all targets. When asked where he learned to shoot like that, he said, "7-Eleven". Since 7-Eleven wasn't as popular when the movie first debuted, some foreign versions of the film replace 7-Eleven with Disneyland. The German version replaced 7-Eleven with Space Invaders.
- David Letterman has a running gag about 7-Eleven. He has the "president" of 7-Eleven come out and tell the audience members to come into the establishment and just say "Gimme my Million Dollars" and they will will be entered into a drawing for $1,000,000 and a H2 Hummer, in addition to receiving a free hot dog and muffin. On October 24, 2006, it was announced that customers could go to 7-Eleven and say "Trick or Treat, give me meat" to get a free hot dog or bag of beef jerky.
- An episode of Futurama showed a 31st Century version of the store, with the logo name rendered as 711 as if to denote "7 to the 11th power". A sign beneath it boasts that the store is "open 28 hours".
- Rock band 311 used to manufacture t-shirts featuring the 7-Eleven logo with the numeral "7" replaced by a "3." However in 2001, the band received a cease-and-desist letter from the corporation [4].
- The female working population of 7-Eleven is the subject of a Mindless Self Indulgence song entitled "Seven Eleven."
[edit] Trivia
- July 11th is "7-Eleven day", during which patrons can get a Free 7.11 ounce Slurpee at participating stores.
- The trademark logo of 7-Eleven is all capital letters except the "n" is lower-case.
- The company previously did business as Super 7 in Indianapolis, Indiana for many years (with "super" replacing "eleven" in the traditional logo) due to a local supermarket chain having already used the 7-Eleven name. (That chain has since changed its name.)
- In Maryland, the general slang term for 7-Eleven is "S'leven" (one two-syllable word.)
- In Western Canada, the general slang term for 7-Eleven is "Sev".
- In Malaysia, the general slang term for 7-Eleven is "7-E".
- Starting in the 2007 season, 7-Eleven has begun a partnership with the Chicago White Sox to begin home night games at 7:11.
- On November 9th, 2006, 7-Eleven announced that it has signed on as a major sponsor of the Dallas Mavericks for the next three seasons and as title sponsor of its popular Street Team. As part of that agreement, 7-Eleven® will give free coupons to Mavericks fans as they leave American Airlines Center following each of the 41 home games during the 2006-2007 season.
[edit] Historic Slogans
- Get The Good Things Easy
- Oh, Thank Heaven For 7-Eleven
- It's a Store and More
- No one keeps you revvin' like 7-Eleven
- At the 7-Eleven, freedom's waiting for you
- If it's not around the house, it's just around the corner at 7-Eleven
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- 7-Eleven
- 7-Eleven in Australia
- 7-Eleven in Denmark
- 7-Eleven in Hong Kong
- 7-Eleven in Malaysia
- 7-Eleven in Norway
- 7-Eleven in Philippines
- 7-Eleven in South Korea
- 7-Eleven in Taiwan
- 7-Eleven in Thailand
- 5 Million Free Slurpees At 7-Eleven
- Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd
- Seven-Eleven Japan completes purchase of 7-Eleven
- Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd.
- 7-Eleven Global Licensing Page
[edit] References
- ^ Tricia Pemberton, "7-Eleven making presence known with more stores", The Oklahoman October 19, 2005. also online
- ^ Sharon Dowell, "At Oklahoma 7-Elevens, Icy rules cool", The Oklahoman July 27, 2005.
- ^ Meg Major, "Fancy Footwork", Progressive Grocer May 15, 2006. Describes the competitors and stresses the advanced development in the Pennsylvania market.
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-7-Eleven-Citgo.html "7-Eleven Drops Citgo As Gas Supplier"
- ^ http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/27/news/international/citgo.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes "7-Eleven says politics played no part in dropping Citgo"
- ^ http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2092 "Venezuela’s Citgo Says it Decided to Discontinue 7/11 Contract Two Months Ago"
- ^ http://www.citgo.com/Home.jsp
Categories: Articles with large trivia sections | Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 7-Eleven | Convenience stores | Dallas-Fort Worth Texas based companies | Multinational companies | Retail companies of Canada | Companies of Japan | Retailers of Japan | Retail companies of the United States | Companies established in 1927
