Seven Eleven

The company was founded in 1927 in Oak Cliff, Texas, USA, which is now part of Dallas, Texas, when an employee of Southland Ice Company started selling milk, eggs and bread from an ice dock.[1]It began to use the 7-Eleven name in 1946. In 1952 7-Eleven opened its 100th store. 7-Eleven purchased a chain of stores in 1964 called "Speedee-Mart", which initiated the company's entry into franchising. 7-Eleven first experimented with a 24-hour schedule in Austin, Texas in 1962.[2] In 1963, 24-hour stores were established in Las Vegas, Fort Worth, and Dallas.[3] Supermarket chain Ito-Yokado, which operates 7-Eleven stores in Japan, purchased the majority interest of The Southland Corporation in 1991. In 1999, The Southland Corporation changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc.
The original Oak Cliff location was an improvised storefront at an ice manufacturing plant called Southland Ice Co. Despite the presence of small grocery stores and general merchandisers by 1927 in the immediate Dallas area, management at the ice plant found that selling convenience items such as bread and milk proved popular with their growing customer base. Eventually, several locations would open up in the Dallas area. Initially, these stores were open from 7 am to 11 pm, which was unprecedented at the time, hence the name; however, most 7-Eleven stores are now open twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.
7-Eleven's most popular private label products include: Slurpee, a partially frozen carbonated and non-carbonated beverage begun in the mid-1960s, available in a number of flavors, and the Big Gulp super size soft drink in 32, 44, 52 (Xtreme Gulp), and 64 (American) fluid ounce sizes. In 2005, 7-Eleven introduced their largest soft drink product, the 128 fluid ounce (1 gallon) Team Gulp. Big Gulp drinks first appeared in 1981.
The Southland Corporation would come to own or operate several brands and concepts, including Reddy Ice (the evolution of the original company ice operation); Movie Quik, an in-store video-rental service; Citgo, the gas brand sold at many locations up until 2006; as well as Chief Auto Parts, which had locations adjacent to or near several 7-Eleven locations.
In the wake of 7-Eleven's bankruptcy in the late 1980s, many stores were sold off, as well as many of the assets previously mentioned; Reddy Ice was reluctantly spun off (and now operates as an independent company) despite ice manufacture being Southland's original business; Citgo was sold in 2 phases; the Movie Quik service disappeared from stores. Chief Auto Parts stores were eventually sold to Auto Zone. Even Southland's headquarters complex, CityPlace, would not be fully developed as originally planned due to the company's financial condition. A twin second tower would have stood directly across U.S. Highway 75 from the original (and surviving) office tower, connected far above ground (and the freeway) with an enclosed pedestrian walkway. The land for the failed second tower (which would have been dubbed 'CityPlace West') is now occupied by a golf driving range, which will depart in 2007 for a mixed-use project for the growing Uptown area.
Ito-Yokado, 7-Eleven's then-largest franchisee, would be the saving grace of the company; this would prove to aid Southland in its exit from bankruptcy. As a result, Ito-Yokado would own a controlling stake of the firm.
In November of 2005, Seven & I Holdings Co. completed the purchase of 7-Eleven, Inc., turning the American publicly traded conglomerate into a publicly traded Japanese conglomerate. Seven-Eleven Japan is itself a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings, which also owns the Japanese Denny's chain of restaurants and Ito-Yokado.
In May 2007, the company moved to a new headquarters (dubbed 'One Arts Plaza') in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas. Since 1988, the headquarters had been at Cityplace Center in the Cityplace area just north of the city core, near Uptown. A new 7-Eleven location opened, also in May 2007, on the first floor of One Arts Plaza; this opening marks the first placement of a 7-Eleven location in downtown Dallas. [4]