7-Eleven has been my favorite location for snacks and drinks since childhood. They used to sell ICEE. The polar bear signs were always a welcoming sight on a hot summer day.
7-Eleven always had the foot long bubble gum sticks and giant candy bars. I would buy a Snickers or Milky Way.
I could usually find a 7-Eleven in any small town. Sometimes they were the only convenience store in towns with less than a 1000 people.
Later as an adult I also buy milk and bread at 7-Eleven. Still buy snacks and candy. I can’t drink Slurpees anymore. Ice headaches hurt too much.
I hope their business struggles arw temporary. I’d hate to lose these stores.
I remember buying ICEE during my childhood in the late 1960’s. The blue and red cups with the polar bear. Slurpee came later in my Junior high and high school years.
The one 7-Eleven I saw closing here in Chicago is literally across the street and a block up from another 7-Eleven, so I’m not surprised one of them eventually had to go. Still a zillion locations to choose from. They have over 13,000 in North America, according to that article.
A total of 400 stores is nothing to be overly concerned about, most likely just realigning to become more profitiable here is the states. Globally, 7-11 is the the largest quick shop market in the world with over 84,000 locations. In Japan you can get really decent sushi at 7-11. You can oder it freshly made in many stores during lunch, I ate lunch there everyday and so did the Japanese.
We’ve always had 7-Elevens around but my main impression of them is from them buying out the White Hen chain of convenience stores, so I guess just “Big Business”. Turns out they’re owned by a Japanese company so I guess I was right.
The one nearest me is across the street from a Dollar General so, if I needed a loaf of bread, cat food or some sour cream and didn’t want to drive to the real grocery store, the only reason I’d go into the 7-Eleven is if it was 2am.
When I moved to Chicago in the late '80s, there were very few 7-Elevens here; the dominant convenience store chain was the local White Hen Pantry. White Hen was bought by a 7-Eleven franchisee in 2006, and their stores gradually were rebranded as 7-Elevens.
In the Chicago Loop alone, according to their store finder, they have like ten stores. Definitely a bit of oversaturation. As I work in the Loop, I’ve also noticed that, prior to COVID, there were a ton of CVS and Walgreens in the area, too, and many of those have closed, as well.
The CNN article in the OP cites “lower foot traffic,” and I would not be surprised if that’s part of the issue in cities, where the 7-Elevens (and the drug stores) are largely there for people who work in the central business district, and where office occupancy and “return to office” still lags behind where it was five years ago.
Also, unlike the ones in small towns, urban 7-Elevens (and urban convenience stores, in general) typically aren’t also gas stations. They largely serve as outlets for junk food, energy drinks, soda, beer, and smoking products.
IME, traveling around the Midwest, there’s usually some form of a convenience store in a small town that’s big enough to support one, but it’s typically some other chain: Kwik Trip in Wisconsin, Casey’s General Store in a lot of areas, etc.
This is a very small number of stores which are presumably relatively unprofitable. 7-11 is doing well enough that Canadian company Couche-Tard tried to buy the company from its Japanese owners for $37 billion (USD), was rebuffed, and has increased their offer to $47 billion (7 trillion ¥). This is probably a reaction to that.
I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but this site indicates that 20% of 7-Eleven’s stores in the U.S. are in California, and nearly half are concentrated in three states (California, Texas, and Florida).
Back in 1995, when DH and I were passing through Las Vegas, there was an intersection with 7-Elevens on three of the four corners. Wonder how long that lasted?
Both of which are better than 7-Eleven, and then you can include places like Sheetz or Wawa in there, too. Casey’s is okay, but I love me a good Kwik-Trip.
I don’t even like the big bite, because they have the bahama mama sausages right next to them which are far superior. As well as cheesy bread and mini tacos.
IIRC, the last 7-Eleven around here (central Kansas) closed several years ago. Now, there is a Casey’s in every small town, and there are multiple locations in larger cities.
The 7-Eleven in my area is next door – literally next door, they share a fence – to another convinience store. The Other Store also has a gas station that usually runs a few dozen cents cheaper per gallon than other stations in town so is always busy. Despite being next to each other the 7-Eleven is more difficult to pull into and and has a poorly designed parking lot, so I won’t be surprised if it’s on the chopping block. I’ll also not be surprised if it survives.
I hope it survives simply because I know one of the workes there and I don’t want to see him lose his job.
During the lockdown stage of Covid 7-Eleven was the only place that I noticed was regulalrly stocked with toilet paper. I guess people didn’t think to look for it at convinience stores?
