From Small Business To Big Business: 7-11 Inc.
Author: Cash Miller

Everywhere you go today it seems there is a convenience
store on the corner of an intersection. And 7-11 is the
king of the convenience store world. In fact they might
even be thought of as the father of the convenience store
world considering how old the company actually is. Today
the company is a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Co. of
Japan but it wasn't always so.

7-11 actually got started way back in 1927 in Dallas, Texas
by a man named Joe C. Thompson. You see Mr. Thompson who
was an employee of the Southland Ice Company had an idea.
Back in the days before refrigerators you needed to
purchase blocks of ice to keep everything cold. Well Mr.
Thompson who happened to work at an ice plant thought that
he could make some money by selling basic items like milk,
eggs, and bread right from the dock since he had a lot of
ice. He focused on convenience items and the fact he was
able to keep them cold. This was something that other
merchants in the area couldn't do.

Mr. Thompson's idea was a success needless to say. So much
so that Mr. Thompson was able to buy the Southland Ice
Company which he renamed Southland Corporation. Soon he had
several locations in the Dallas area. It was because of the
hours that his stores kept that the stores were named 7-11
in 1946. For other merchants in the area it was unheard of
to open at 7 a.m. and not close till 11 p.m. By 1952 7-11
had opened its 100th store. In 1961 the company
incorporated under the name The Southland Corporation.

It was in 1962 that the idea for the 24 hour store was
first tried in Austin, Texas. Soon 24 hour stores were
established in Las Vegas, Fort Worth, and Dallas. For the
next 35 years it was business as usual while the company
continued to steadily expand. But in 1987 the company would
be dramatically shook up by the stock market crash. That
was the year that John Philip Thompson the CEO and son of
7-11's founder would try a $5.2 billion management buyout.
The company had tried to raise high yield debt financing
but because of the crash was unable to meet its need. The
company was forced to sell part of its stock to attract
investors to its bonds.

Within a few years it was on the verge of bankruptcy until
it largest franchisee Ito-Yokado bailed it out. Soon though
the Japanese company had gained control of 7-11 and all its
stores. In 2005 Ito-Yokado formed Steven & I Holdings Co.
with 7-11 Inc. as a subsidiary. And although the family
that originally formed the company no longer owns it they
did create a global icon in the convenience store business.
If you say you're headed to 7-11 everyone knows you're
headed to the corner store. Although today you can buy a
little more than milk, eggs, and bread.


About the Author:

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