When was 711 invented

Thompson was elected vice-president of sales. Upon the elder Thompson's death that year, the Dallas Morning News credited Thompson with transforming 'the ordinary corner ice house from an ice dispensary to a multimillion-dollar drive-in grocery enterprise.

Southland, incorporated in , moved quickly to national prominence. The unprecedented expansion began with dairy acquisitions, notably Midwest Dairy Products in , with production plants and branches in Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama. Purchasing continued through the s and s, as Southland bought existing convenience market chains in Arizona, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Georgia, and Tennessee. In addition, Southland experimented with its first hour store, in Las Vegas, and expanded to the East Coast and into Canada in With the acquisition of SpeeDee Marts in California in , Southland was introduced to the concept of franchising, a system already in operation at the very successful SpeeDee Mart stores.

The company developed two-week training sessions for prospective franchisees, which allowed greater decentralization of stores. By , Southland had climbed to 49th in Fortune magazine's top 50 merchandising firms.

In January , 1, 7-Eleven stores were operating; by December the number had increased to 3, Meanwhile, the Slurpee slush drink made its debut in 7-Eleven stores in Through a new computer inventory system, 7-Eleven was able to pinpoint its strengths and discover that single purchase items were its best sellers.

But with such growth, problems began to surface: due in part to the operation of hour stores, high employee turnover and insufficient security systems drew management attention.

The company committed itself to the hour store nonetheless, and the number of hour 7-Eleven stores rose from in to 3, by the end of Thompson establish Southland Ice Company and the first known convenience store. The first regional distribution center was opened in Florida in ; by several such centers were fully functioning and serving more than 3, 7-Eleven stores.

Jere Thompson, named president of Southland in , continued Southland's American retail store expansion. Southland began to use microwaves for fast-food sales and introduced self-service gasoline through its newly acquired Pak-a-Sak stores. In , the 5,th 7-Eleven store opened in Dallas at the site of John Jefferson's original ice dock.

Penetration of the European market occurred with Southland's purchase of a 50 percent interest in Cavenham Ltd. By early , Southland's international operations included 50 percent interest in 1, United Kingdom outlets, 75 7-Eleven stores in Canada, and four Super-7 Stores in Mexico. Like the franchise concept in the United States, area licensing worked well in Japan because of its emphasis on the individual businessperson operating a store but able to take advantage of 7-Eleven's name and established systems of management and accounting.

By late , 7-Eleven stores were open for business in Japan. Also in , Southland bought Chief Auto Parts, a California chain of retail automobile parts stores. By Chief Auto Parts was the largest convenience retailer of automobile parts in the nation, operating stores. Another Southland acquisition was Tidel Systems, a manufacturer of cash-dispensing systems and underground gasoline-tank-monitoring systems. But Southland's most significant acquisition by far was the Citgo Petroleum Corporation, purchased in August In September Southland decided to sell a 50 percent interest in Citgo to a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.

In mid the Thompson brothers, spurred in part by the threat of a hostile takeover bid by Canadian raider Samuel Belzburg, initiated a leveraged buyout. The buyout, which involved the formation of a temporary holding company called JT Acquisitions, was completed on July 6, By the end of Southland had completed a series of divestitures to streamline operations. Southland may well have rebounded by the early s were it not for competition from convenience stores operated by the major oil companies.

Although these stores emphasized gasoline retailing rather than other merchandise, they did sell the primary products of convenience stores--soft drinks, cigarettes, and beer. Their sheer number and financial strength changed the nature of the convenience retailing industry.

Their effort was exacerbated by the decline in the U. Southland, along with a number of other convenience store chains, had limited capital to invest in its store base due to heavy debt loads.

Matthews II, the company began to work on a plan to restructure its balance sheet. During Southland sold its remaining 50 percent stake in Citgo to Petroleos de Venezuela.

The company emerged from bankruptcy less than five months later. As part of the reorganization, Southland exchanged its old leveraged buyout bonds for approximately half of the principal amount of new bonds--which had substantially lower interest rates. Ito-Yokado Co. Also in , Southland decided to leave the distribution and food processing business to focus on its core business, 7-Eleven.

The company sold certain distribution centers and food processing facilities to McLane Co. Convenience stores began establishing themselves in new suburbs and areas too small to require a supermarket. The store just remained open. That night was so successful; the store began staying open 24 hours every weekend. Soon other 7-Eleven stores followed suit, staying open around the clock.

Giving customers another take on a popular drink, coffee, 7-Eleven introduced coffee-to-go in Long Island, N. This idea was a hit with customers and7-Eleven has since offered customers quick and easy ways to serve themselves their favorite drink, the way they like it. Expanding Around the Globe By the end of , 7-Eleven was better known for Slurpee drinks and grew to approximately 3, stores in the United States and went international by opening stores in Canada.

Some of the growth was accomplished when 7-Eleven entered thefranchising business with the purchase of franchised California Speedee Marts in The company then went south to Mexico and signed a licensing agreement. In , the company reached its 5,th-store milestone, and continued its international expansion overseas in Japan.

Self-Service Transformed the Convenience Industry As work routines and leisure lives continued to change, self-service was key in the changing needs of time-pressed customers.

Beginning in the s, self-serve gasoline came to growing 7-Eleven convenience store locations. Several little inventions and machines, like the counter-top microwave oven, self-serve soda fountain and roller grill, created new quick- and self-service merchnadising opportunities.

These conveniences quickly became popular in other countries, as well. The numbers of International outlets at this time were some 2, stores. Choices broadened, and consumers demanded not only speed and ease of service, but also variety, quality and value. America ranks among the top with locations, along with by Thailand and South Korea with more than and stores, respectively.

And the company keeps growing, with a brand new store opening somewhere in the world every two hours of every day. The ad touted their curbside grocery delivery service, and an animated rooster and owl reminded customers that the store was open early and closed late. When his soda fountain went on the fritz, he improvised by putting some bottles in the freezer to stay cool.

However, when he popped the top, they were a little frozen and slushy. Folks loved them and started requesting "those pops that were in a little bit longer.

On this one day, 7-Eleven gives away about , gallons of Slurpees Some 7-Eleven stores get the machines themselves certified kosher as a selling point for their Jewish customers.

The province has an average of over , Slurpees sold in five regional stores every month. Maybe next year, guys. Customers vote by purchasing special red or blue coffee cups printed with each candidate's name. The cups are scanned at check-out and automatically entered in this unscientific, but surprisingly accurate poll—in and , the number of coffee cup votes and the number of actual popular votes for both candidates was only off by 1 or 2 percentage points.