The World's First Convenience Store: The Story of 7-Eleven
In her 2016 novel Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata described convenience stores as places where people can "enjoy and take pleasure in discovering things they like."
And it's true — from snacks and drinks to toiletries and cleaning products, you'll usually find what you need in a convenience store.
But 100 years ago, the store that now calls itself the world's first convenience store didn't have any of those things.
It sold ice.
Now a global brand with over 84,000 stores, 7-Eleven evolved from a company called the Southland Ice Company, which had several stores in Dallas, Texas.
The stores sold ice that was used to preserve food in households that didn't have electric refrigerators.
In 1927, one store started selling eggs, milk and bread. Soon, others followed suit.
When the Great Depression came in 1929, Southland went bankrupt. But it was able to reorganize, and came back with a focus on food and drinks. And when America's Prohibition policies ended in 1933, it started selling alcohol too.
By 1945, the company had stores in many parts of Texas, open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. To highlight their opening hours, in 1946 the stores were renamed 7-Eleven.
The stores started appearing all over the US, and the first international store opened in Canada in 1969. By 1974, there were 5,000 7-Elevens.
That year, the first 7-Eleven in Japan was opened by supermarket chain Ito-Yokado, which would establish the company Seven-Eleven Japan in 1978.
Joe C. Thompson, Sr., had become president of Southland Ice in 1931, and his family controlled Southland for decades. But efforts to stop a hostile takeover bankrupted the company in 1990.
In 1991, Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan acquired 70% of Southland, with the Thompson family keeping just 5%.
Southland was renamed 7-Eleven, Inc., and in 2005, it became completely owned by Seven & i Holdings, a Tokyo-based company created by Ito-Yokado.
Seven & i Holdings still owns 7-Eleven today, with over 21,000 stores in Japan, and more than 13,000 in the US and Canada.
