7-Eleven Near Me

7-Eleven is a convenience store chain that operates in nearly twenty countries around the world. Since its beginnings in Texas in the 1920s, the company has managed to flourish through economic hardship and numerous restructures, and today has many thousands of locations around the world. The stores have had several names, including Southland Ice Company, Southland Corporation, and Tote’m Stores.

Most 7-Eleven stores around the world operate as franchises. Today the company headquarters remains in Texas, not too far from the original stores from which 7-Eleven sprung. To find your nearest 7-Eleven convenience store, you can just search for “7-Eleven near me”!

7-Eleven Near Me – Find it on the Map

7-Eleven Near Me – 7-Eleven Trivia

How did 7-Eleven begin?

In 1927, an employee of a Texas icehouse store called the Southland Ice Company began selling simple groceries such as eggs, bread and milk from the ice house stores. The director who authorized this believed that selling items such as these from convenience stores would help customers avoid long trips just to get a few small items. The employee, John Jefferson Green, eventually bought the company and renamed it to the Southland Corporation. The following year, an employee put up an Alaskan totem pole in the store as a marketing gimmick. Eventually, management began to put totem poles in every store, and renamed them to “Tote’m Stores”. That same year, some stores in Dallas were converted to combination convenience stores and gas stations, as an experiment. In the 1930s, the company very nearly went bankrupt due to the Great Depression. Investment from bankers, going into receivership, and reorganizing the company helped to save it from ruin, and it began to turn around, especially after the second world war. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the company began to acquire many other chains and convenience businesses, which helped it to expand greatly. However, due to the stock market crash of 1987, the company lost a great deal of money, and had to sell hundreds of locations. The Southland Corporation was forced to sell the vast majority of control to a Japanese company known as Ito-Yokado, in order to meet its debts.

All 7 Elevens feature the world-famous logo, even those outside America, such as this Singaporean location.

What does the 7-Eleven name mean?

In 1946, as part of the post-war expansions, the names of the franchises were changed to 7-Eleven. This reflected the opening hours of the new stores, 7 am to 11 pm, seven days per week. At the time these hours were unprecedented for convenience stores. In 1969, several stores in Austin began to be open for 24 hours, as part of an experiment. Later, many other 24-hour stores were opened in Texas, and later in Las Vegas.

What types of items do 7-Eleven stores sell?

Some 7-Elevens are also gas stations, and so sell different types of fuel for vehicles. The convenience stores themselves sell foods and drinks, as well as a small range of grocery items. The food sold includes ice cream, salads, pizzas and sandwiches, while the drinks include their Slurpee drink, as well as sodas and coffees. Some of the groceries include simple items like batteries or razors, newspapers and magazines, milk, auto supplies such as oil or wax, some meats and produces, and even such items as travel accessories, firewood and fishing bait and tackle. Many stores feature ATMs for customers to use, as well.

Search “7-Eleven near me” to find a convenience store in your area.

7-Eleven Near Me – 7-Eleven Facts

7-Eleven is well known for its Slurpee drink. The original slushed drink was created in the late 1950s. Omar Knedlik of The Icee Company had a store with a broken soda fountain. He was forced to put his drinks in a freezer to keep them cool, and when they were taken out, they were found to be slushy. Customers liked their drinks this way, and so Knedlik designed and created a special slushy drink machine. In the 1960s, 7-Eleven entered into a deal to license the drink, under their own name.

Today the company has over fifty-six thousand stores, in eighteen countries around the world. They opened in China in 1992 and Hong Kong in 1981. Japan has more locations than anywhere else in the world, with over 31% of stores being in Japan (nearly 19,000 locations). The first Canadian location opened in 1969, while the company entered into the Mexican market in 1971. There are many 7-Elevens in Australia, partly due to a deal to buy out many of Mobil’s gas station locations.

The 7-Eleven stores have had several firsts in the convenience store industry. They were the first convenience store to operate 24 hours per day, and to feature self-serve soda fountains. The company had the first television commercial of any convenience store, which aired in 1949. They were the first convenience store to sell pre-paid phone cards, and also the first to feature ATMs inside stores.

7-Eleven sells over 20 million pizzas every year! This is enough to give one to every inhabitant of New York state or Florida! The stores sell over 20 million pounds of spicy chicken wings every year, which works out to be nearly 230 every hour!

While most stores close for Christmas Day, 7-Eleven remains open. In fact, the day is one of its busiest days in the whole year!

The first location to be open 24 hours a day was a store in Austin. This store was forced to remain open due to a rush of customers following a University of Texas football game. The management realized how popular this was, and so several other stores were opened as experiments, many of them very close to other university campuses. Today all American stores are 24 hours, except where the law prohibits.

Of the over fifty-six thousand locations, nearly eleven thousand are in North America. Because of this, one quarter of all Americans live just one mile away from a 7-Eleven store!

7-Eleven ran a promotion known as Bring Your Own Cup Day. Customers were invited to bring in any container of their choosing to fill with Slurpees, with some people bringing in pails, buckets, fish bowls and watering cans!

For your closest 7-Eleven location, search for “7-Eleven near me”.