7-Eleven is the world’s largest convenience store chain, with a history dating back to 1927, when the brand was originally founded in Dallas, Texas.
Its predecessor was the Southland Ice Company, founded in 1927. Founded by Nancy and Samuel R. Fulton Jr. in Dallas, Texas, at a time when refrigerators were not widely available, ice for freezing became an indispensable necessity. Jefferson Green, who sold ice at Southland Ice Company, was so concerned about improving customer service that he made the decision to open the store 16 hours a day, every day of the summer, a service that was very popular with local residents. Not only that, Goering through careful investigation of the local residents’ purchasing intentions and needs, found that local residents not only want him to sell ice, but also want him to sell other household items in a timely manner. For example, milk, eggs, bread and so on.
For this reason, Goering suggested that South Mainland offer more convenience items to the stores under his responsibility, which was approved by the company.
In this way, the Southland Ice Company not only sold ice, began to sell milk and eggs and other goods, creating a new field of operation and profit growth points, known as the germ of the American convenience store. The first stores were called “Tote’m stores" and the totem pole placed next to the store became the symbol of the convenience store.
After World War II, 7-11 extended its business hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. in 1946 in response to the development of the society and the increasing needs of the people, and changed its name to “7-Eleven. In 1962, 7-Eleven began to operate 24 hours a day, a milestone in the convenience store business model, and by 1963, there were more than 1,000 7-Eleven stores in the U.S. In 1964, due to the accelerated expansion of the 7-Eleven business, 7-Eleven opened its first store in the U.S. in 1964.
In 1964, due to the consideration of accelerated expansion, the Southern Company decided that the U.S. “7-Eleven" to begin franchising and planning for diversified expansion, and in 1968, it signed the first regional license agreement in the U.S. In 1973, Japan’s Ito Yokocho signed the first regional license agreement in the United States.
In 1973, Japan’s Ito-Yokado Co., Ltd. signed a regional franchise agreement with Southern Company to acquire the right to develop the 7-Eleven convenience store model in Japan, and in 1974, the first 7-Eleven convenience store in Japan opened in Tokyo. At the time of its establishment, there was considerable opposition within Ito-Yokado, but Toshifumi Suzuki secured the approval of the company’s top management on the condition that even if it failed, it would not affect the parent company, and in 1975, it began to change to a 24-hour operation, becoming a popular convenience store chain in Japan. By 1990, Ito-Yokado had opened 4,000 “7-Eleven" convenience store chains throughout Japan.
“While the 7-Eleven model was successful in Japan, it was on the brink of survival in the U.S. In 1991, Southern Company went bankrupt and reorganized due to the failure of diversified expansion and unhealthy competition from large shopping centers and discount stores. In 1991, 7-Eleven Japan, a subsidiary of Ito-Yokado Corporation, and one of its partners acquired 72.7% of the shares of Southern Company. 7-Eleven Japan later acquired this partner, and in 1999, Southern Company changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc. and became a subsidiary of 7-Eleven Japan.
On September 1, 2005, Ito-Yokado established a new holding company, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., to unify the management of Ito-Yokado, 7-Eleven INC. in the U.S., and 7-Eleven Japan, and on November 9, 2005, the company formally completed the acquisition of all of the shares of 7-Eleven INC. On November 9, 2005, we completed the acquisition of all the shares of 7-Eleven INC., making the U.S. company a wholly owned subsidiary and delisting it from the U.S. stock market. This also marked the official takeover of the 7-11 brand by Seven-Eleven Japan. Seven-Eleven, which was founded in the United States and ushered in a new era in the development of convenience stores, ended its U.S. identity and began a new development of its Japanese identity.
Toshifumi Suzuki, the leader of “7-Eleven". Toshifumi Suzuki entered the Tokyo Publishing House as a book salesman when he just graduated from college.
Just as young people today become lost in the day-to-day routine of life after joining a nationalized company, Toshifumi Suzuki at that time became lost in the stability of his unchanging life and began to think about his future, wanting to break away from the comfort zone and challenge himself with something new.
At the age of 30, he used his extensive experience to join Ito-Yokado, a traditional Japanese hypermarket at the time.
After joining the company, Toshifumi Suzuki realized that the hypermarket was in a bottleneck.
Toshifumi Suzuki was sent to the United States for a study tour and came into contact with Seven-Eleven.
He recognized the unparalleled competitive advantage of Seven-Eleven convenience stores.
As you may have guessed, Toshio Suzuki decided to introduce seven-eleven convenience stores in Japan.
However, his idea was met with opposition from all members of the company’s board of directors, who argued that “supermarkets have become so popular throughout Japan that it is impossible for us to win by relying on such a small-scale store".
After numerous arguments, he finally convinced the board of directors, and in November 1973, he was granted a territorial franchise in Japan for the 7-11 Convenience Chain Group of the U.S.A. Toshifumi Suzuki created the 7-11 Convenience Chain Group of Japan, a company that was the first of its kind in Japan, in spite of public opinion. Toshifumi Suzuki took the initiative to create the “Japan 7-11 Convenience Chain Group," pioneering the path of the Japanese retail industry to a new type of convenience chain store.
In May 1974, Toshifumi Suzuki himself opened the Toyosu store, the first store of the Nippon 7-11 Convenience Chain Group, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Koto-ku, Tokyo.
The store was converted from a soon-to-be-bankrupt tavern and is located in a remote area.
However, on the first day of operation, sales amounted to 394,000 yen, twice the amount of the previous tavern.
After the success of the first store, 15 more franchises were opened that year, with a turnover of 700 million yen.
In 1975, Toshifumi Suzuki transformed Seven-Eleven into a 24-hour business. The business empire of convenience stores began to take shape, and seven-Eleven became one of the most popular convenience store chains.
By 1976, seven-Eleven had opened 100 stores in Japan.
The 1001st store opened on November 30, 1980, the 200lth store opened in 1984, and today, 7-11 has 70,000+ stores worldwide.
In order to adapt to the Japanese culture, Toshifumi Suzuki improved Seven-Eleven after it entered Japan.
For example, in the sale of basic products, the United States sells hot dogs, sandwiches, French fries and other fast food.
In Japan, Suzuki replaced them with everyday foods such as kanto, fried snacks, bento, and rice balls.
In addition to localization, the following core elements have been integral to 7-11’s success: a relentless effort to create all-around convenience services, customer-centric management principles, and a data-driven operating model.
At that time, Suzuki was also able to capture what its customers needed most, and putting itself in the shoes of the consumer was the key to winning the competition.
Many young people once thought of seven-Eleven as their own kitchen, but today, seven-Eleven operates a wider range of businesses, such as utility payments, courier delivery, ATMs, and so on, and customers don’t even need to go to the convenience store in person, as employees will deliver goods to their homes.
What Seven-Eleven wants to do is not only to contract your kitchen, but also your life.
For the retail industry, a rational and effective procurement and logistics system is its soul.
In order to understand the efficiency of merchandise distribution, seven-Eleven has implemented a common distribution system for the first time in Japan, setting up intensive distribution centers by region.
At the same time, the store empowers the store owner to make purchases, and by strengthening single-item management, it puts the focus of operations on each individual item, encouraging the store owner to make multiple purchases in small batches, lowering inventory and improving operational efficiency.
Toshifumi Suzuki himself said later that the common distribution structure has become the basic business model of this huge industry.
In terms of store opening strategy, compared to a wide range of stores, seven-Eleven is in a good selection of areas to implement a high-density multi-store strategy, which is conducive to increasing the store’s visibility in the region, creating regional brands, but also conducive to the final realization of small-volume goods.
Nowadays, these services provided by convenience stores have greatly facilitated our lives.
Perhaps you may think that it is only natural for seven-Eleven to provide these services.
In fact, as the initiator of these services for the first time in a convenience store, it has experienced tremendous pressure and obstacles in the process of promoting each of these services.
For example, the provision of ATMs, which are automated teller machines (ATMs), in the stores.
In order to collect and understand consumer demand, Seven-Eleven often conducted surveys in the form of questionnaires to customers, neighborhood residents, and other groups of people, and in the late 1990s, the surveys found that many customers had expressed a desire to add ATMs to convenience stores.
It was only then that Toshifumi Suzuki decided to move forward with the project.
Initially, they planned to cooperate with an existing financial institution, but negotiations between the two parties did not result in an agreement.
In the end, they decided to open their own bank.
The idea of opening a bank in a convenience store seems unthinkable even today, and at the time it was one of the biggest objections and skepticisms of Suzuki’s career.
However, Suzuki remained calm and guided the team to change their perspective, re-examining the decisive factors for the establishment of a bank in Seven-Eleven, which led the team to further reach a consensus and firmly believe that only by establishing a bank can we help customers solve their problems when they are in urgent need of cash, and truly realize the concept of “convenience". The bank was founded on the belief that only by establishing a bank can we help customers solve their problems when they are in urgent need of cash and truly realize “convenience.
Thus, Seven Bank was born in the midst of skepticism and opposition.
The utilization rate of ATMs has increased steadily since they were introduced in stores.
Today, ATMs can be found in most stores in Japan and Taiwan.
While Seven Bank easily achieved its goal of making a profit within three years, as stipulated by the Financial Services Agency, it also brought an unexpected benefit to Seven-Eleven: most of the customers who used the ATMs to withdraw money would spend it in the stores, which also boosted sales.
“Everything is guided by the user’s value" is the development concept and core of seven-Eleven, and seven-Eleven can rightly say: I have satisfied the user’s needs to the extreme over the past few decades.
In 1978, Taiwan’s Uni-Corporate gathered capital to create “Uni-Corporate Superstore Co., Ltd." and introduced “7-Eleven" in 1979. 14 “Uni-Corporate Superstores" opened in May 1979 in Taiwan. President Chain Store Corporation (PCSC) became independent again in 1987, after a long period of losses.
With the full support of its parent company, President Chain Store Corporation, President Chain Store went through a period of hard work and exploration, and through active store development and innovative marketing, it opened the golden era of Taiwan’s convenience stores. 1990, it became the dominant player in Taiwan’s retailing industry. 2000, the U.S. 7-Eleven, Inc. and President Chain Store Corporation entered into a perpetual licensing agreement. 1997, President Chain Store Corporation entered into an agreement with U.S.-based Starbucks. In 1997, Uni-Supermarket and Starbucks (U.S.A.) established a joint venture, Uni-Supermarket and Starbucks Corporation (U.S.A.). Currently, the company operates dozens of retail brands under its umbrella, including 7-ELEVEN, Starbucks, Cool Stones Ice Cream, and Blogger, among others.
Although seven-Eleven in Taiwan lags behind the United States and Japan in terms of the number of stores, it leads the United States and Japan in terms of the average density of land distribution and occupies the first place in the world.
The variety of Seven-Eleven stores in Taiwan is also the largest in the world, and the variety of services offered is unmatched in other countries. The convenience store culture that Seven-Eleven has developed has also become an integral part of Taiwan’s culture.
Not all seven-eleven is operated by the same company, in fact, in different regions, the management right of seven-eleven belongs to different companies.
When it comes to seven-eleven in China, we have to talk about one more company, that is, Dairy Farm International Limited, a subsidiary of the Jardine Matheson Group in Hong Kong.
The operating right in South China was obtained by Dairy Farm International, and the operating right in North China was obtained by Ito-Yokado of Japan, except for the operating right in Shanghai, where Uni-Supermarket, Thailand Grand, Korea Lotte, and Ito-Yokado of Japan were all interested in getting their hands on the operating right of “7-Eleven", making it difficult to determine the operating right in Shanghai for many years. Finally, in 2009, Uni-Supermarket acquired the franchise right of 7-Eleven in Shanghai. In the same year, 7-Eleven convenience stores opened in Shanghai.
Dairy Farm International owns the operating rights of 7-Eleven in Hong Kong, Southern China and Singapore. The first 7-Eleven store in Hong Kong was opened in 1981 and the first store in Macau was opened in 2005. In 1992, Dairy Farm International was licensed by the Southern Company of the United States of America to open a 7-Eleven convenience store in Shenzhen, and in 1995, it started to open a 7-Eleven convenience store in Guangzhou.
In 2001, Dairy Farm International and Guangdong Xinjie Business Development formed a joint venture company, Guangdong Saiyi Convenience Store Co., Ltd. and were authorized to open 300 stores in Guangdong. 2006, 7-Eleven was authorized to start franchising business in South China. Currently, the total number of 7-Eleven stores in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan and Jiangmen exceeds 700.
Currently, 7-Eleven’s business in South China is operated by Milk International, in Shanghai by Taiwan’s Uni-Supermarket, while the rest of the country is currently operated by Japan’s 7-Eleven in the form of joint ventures or sole proprietorships.
In 2004, Seven Eleven (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was established as a joint venture between 7-Eleven Japan, Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co. and China Sugar & Liquor Group Corporation, responsible for the business in Beijing and Tianjin, and in 2004, the first 7-Eleven Dongzhimen store in Beijing was opened.
In 2010, Seven Eleven (Chengdu) Co., Ltd. invested by Seven Eleven (China) Investment Co., Ltd. was approved, and the first 7-Eleven convenience store in Chengdu was opened in 2011.
In 2012, Shandong Zhongdi Group Co., Ltd. and 7-ELEVEn Japan Co., Ltd. jointly invested in the establishment of Shandong Zhongdi Convenience Life Co. In November 2012, the first “7-Eleven" convenience store in Shandong opened in Qingdao.
In 2013, Sichuan New Hope Group, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. of Japan and Seven&i Group of Japan jointly established New Nine Commercial Development Co. The first “7-Eleven" convenience store opened in Chongqing at the end of 2013.
According to 7-ELEVEN’s unified plan, 7-Eleven convenience stores in China will be operated in ten regions.
Globally, “7-Eleven" assists the development of local franchisees by providing business management methods and brand licenses, and collecting franchise fees.
As of February 2019, there were approximately 20,900 seven-Eleven stores in Japan, far exceeding the other two of the three largest convenience stores in Japan, Lawson and FamilyMart.
Globally (excluding Japan), Seven&I Holdings has 47,360 stores, with Thailand, Korea and the United States ranking among the top three countries in terms of number of stores.
The success of seven-Eleven has nothing to do with continuous innovation. Many of the convenience store products that we are familiar with, such as rice balls and Kanto-cooked food, were first sold from seven-Eleven.
In recent years, seven-Eleven has also begun to experiment with new directions, such as opening its first unmanned store and starting to sell fresh produce.
As a leading company that has pioneered the development of the convenience store industry, seven-eleven has achieved rapid growth in both the number of stores and turnover over the past few decades. From one store to 70,000 stores worldwide, seven-eleven’s development has left many myths to the convenience store retail industry.
Toshifumi Suzuki put forward a series of management principles such as “single product management" and “customer demand-oriented", which have been adopted as the development principles of the retail industry since then.
But seven-Eleven is not without worries. In the ever-changing competitive environment, seven-Eleven, which has enlightened and innovated the convenience store ecosystem, will face new challenges.
Under the impact of e-commerce, convenience stores need more and more dense online stores to give full play to the advantages of convenience stores of various services, but the number of convenience stores in Japan has exceeded 55,000, close to saturation of the market for convenience stores to open the remaining space is becoming smaller and smaller.
Japan’s retail industry, the status quo of manpower shortage is also deeply affected by the convenience store business, which has been insisted on since 1975, “24-hour business system", may also be adjusted for the problem of manpower shortage.
In China, with the rise of local convenience stores, seven-Eleven is also facing the dilemma of stagnant store growth, same-store sales downward. In Indonesia, Seven-Eleven has withdrawn completely due to the difficulty of competing with local food stalls.
There was once a Japanese man, wandering in the United States looking for a new way out of the retail industry, twenty years later, his persistence rewrote the convenience store industry situation.
The first store, a converted tavern, still stands on a bustling Japanese street.
What kind of story will seven-Eleven write in the years to come?
Let’s look forward to the unfinished story of seven-Eleven.
fiboy 