7-Eleven Rolls Dice On Food

Published on: March 29, 2003

by Kevin Coupe

When you think of 7-Eleven, you don’t always think about food (unless you consider a Slurpee and beef jerky to be food).

But as convenience stores find themselves competing with all manners of other retailers, many of them are finding that they need to get into the food business in order to attract customers.

A perfect example of how their business has changed is gasoline, which used to be a high-profit item for c-stores, and which now makes almost no profit…even as gas prices go through the roof throughout the country. If they’re not making money on gas, c-stores have to find other areas to make a profit, and an improved food offering is one natural area.

That’s good news for all of us who want both convenience and better food options.

A perfect example of how this new direction is playing out is southern New Jersey, where 7-Eleven is looking to be more competitive with Wawa, a c-store chain that is very strong with fresh foods and sandwiches.

So, 7-Eleven is rolling out a number of new items, including a new Dreammm doughnut, an Italian sausage sandwich with marinara sauce, breakfast Go-Go Taquitos and the first zero-calorie, sugar-free Slurpee.

Consumers should look for more of such innovations in c-stores. Sometimes they will come in the form of mini-fast food courts, with convenience operators installing a variety of branded fast food outlets inside the store. Other times, the c-store will create their own branded take-out restaurants inside their c-stores.

Increasingly, consumers will have more choice and more nutritious options.

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