Fun Facts

Donuts, Coffee, Slurpee® Drinks, Oh My!

With so many beverages and fresh food options at 7-Eleven stores, it's a wonder how 7-Eleven can keep up with it all. That is why we have gathered these fun facts because seeing is believing.

7-Eleven, Inc.

• 7-Eleven, Inc. is the world’s largest convenience store chain with more than 48,000 stores in 16 countries, of which approximately 9,460 are in North America, and the company has more outlets than any other retailer or food service provider.
• July 11 (7/11) is the official birthday of the 7-Eleven® convenience store chain. The company celebrates its 85^thbirthday this year.
• In 1927, convenience retailing began simply enough when an employee of Southland Ice Company in Dallas started selling milk, eggs and bread from the ice dock. Soon, the convenience store was born and became known as 7-Eleven to reflect the 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. hours of operation.
• For more than 15 years, 7-Eleven has been listed among Hispanic Magazine’s Corporate 100, the top companies providing the most opportunities to Hispanics.
• 7-Eleven adds another store to its worldwide operations every 2 hours.

Industry Firsts

• 7-Eleven was the first to … operate 24 hours a day … sell fresh-brewed coffee in to-go cups ... have a self-serve soda fountain … and offer super-size fountain drinks.
• 7-Eleven aired the first television advertising by any convenience store; the animated commercial featuring a singing owl and rooster ran in 1949.
• 7-Eleven was the first retailer to offer fresh-brewed coffee in to-go cups, introducing it in their Northeast stores in 1964.  And now is the first retailer to add functional, herbal enhancements to its coffee to go.
• 7-Eleven was the first c-store retailer to give guests “freedom of choice” by offering all major soft drink brands at the fountain.
• 7-Eleven was the first convenience store to sell pre-paid phone cards.

Slurpee® Beverages

• The most Slurpee® beverages are sold in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada, followed by Detroit, Mich. But the #1 store in the world for Slurpee drink sales is located in Kennewick, Wash.
• 7-Eleven guests sip almost 13 million Slurpee® beverages each month. Favorite flavors are Coca-Cola and Minute Maid Cherry. Since introduced in 1966, close to 6.5 billion Slurpee drinks have been sold, almost enough for every person on the planet.

Who?  What?  Where?  Who’s buying the most 7-Eleven stuff? 

• Of all U.S. retailers, 7-Eleven sells the most … USA Today newspapers, cold beer, cold single-serve bottled water, cold Gatorade, fresh-grilled hot dogs and money orders.
• Who’s buying the most merchandise at U.S. 7-Eleven® stores? The answer is – the most Slurpee® beverages in Kennewick, Wash., and Detroit, Mich.; hot dogs in Washington, D.C., coffee on Long Island, nachos in Colorado and Big Gulp® drinks in sunny Southern California.
• Nearly one-third of the 6 million people who stop by a U.S. 7-Eleven store each day purchase immediately consumable food.
• 7-Eleven is America’s favorite beverage destination.  More than half of guests purchase a non-alcohol beverage.
• Approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population lives within one mile of a 7-Eleven store.
• A typical 7-Eleven store in the United States has between 2,400 and 3,000 square feet, and carries about 2,500 different items.
• California has more 7-Eleven stores than any other state – about 1,200.
• Of all its proprietary products, 7-Eleven sells more fresh-brewed coffee than anything else –1 million cups each day. That’s more than 10,000 pots of coffee an hour every hour of every day of the year. In fact, 7-Eleven could serve a cup of coffee to every person in its hometown of Dallas every single day – now that’s a Texas-sized coffee break!
• 7-Eleven sells approximately 100 million fresh-grilled hot dogs every year, more than any other retailer in America, and could feed every person in Frankfurter-loving Chicago a Big Bite® hot dog each day for a month.
• When the 32-ounce Big Gulp® drink was introduced in 1980, it was the biggest fountain soft drink on the market. Eight years later, 7-Eleven introduced the giant 64-ounce Double Gulp® beverage, at that time one of the biggest fountain soft drinks on the market. In 2012, the Double Gulp drink shrunk to 50 ounces because consumers wanted the large cup to better fit into a "vehicle-sized" cup holder.
• 7-Eleven stores sell almost 38 million gallons of fountain drinks a year – enough to fill approximately 51 Olympic-size swimming pools.
• 7-Eleven sells 41 million gallons of milk each year – enough for lots of milk mustaches!  And enough to pour more than two glasses of milk for every man, woman and child in the United States.
• 7-Eleven sells more than 2,300 fresh sandwiches per hour.
• If all the prepaid cards sold on an average day at 7-Eleven were placed end to end, they would span more than 30 football fields.
• Enough fountain drinks are sold at 7-Eleven stores in a year to fill Walt Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon twice.
• 7-Eleven has the largest ATM network of any retailer in United States.
• Ho Ho Ho! The day most retailers are closed, 7-Eleven is hopping. Christmas is one of the biggest sales days of the year for the convenience chain.