July 11, 2022 – 7-Eleven

Happy 95th birthday to 7-Eleven! The company is celebrating, as the do every year, with their free Slurpee day.
The chain was founded in 1927, and was originally an ice house storefront in Dallas. That year, Joe Thompson, and employee of the Southland Ice Company, started to sell eggs, milk, break, and other essentials from a makeshift storefront in one of the company’s locations. He realized that selling items like bread and milk in convenience stores would reduce the need for customers to travel to multiple locations for basic supplies.
In 1928, one of the store managers brought back a totem pole from her trip to Alaska. She put it outside her store and it ended up becoming a great marketing tool because it attracted a lot of attention. Eventually, totem poles were added to the front of every store. They began operating under the name “Tote’m Stores”, not just because of the totem poles but because customers “toted” away their purchases.
The stores became 7-Eleven in 1946, reflecting their new hours of operation (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.) which was virtually unheard of at the time. In 1949, the company ran the first TV ad for a convenience store.
The iconic Slurpee was first introduced in 1965. It was actually invented at a Dairy Queen in Kansas City. The soda fountain broke down, so the owner put his sodas in the freezer to keep cool. This caused the drinks to become slushy, which was a huge hit with his customers. That happy accident gave him the idea to design a machine to make slushy drinks out of carbonated beverages. He called his product an ICEE, but when 7-Eleven licensed it in 1965, the name was changed to Slurpee.
Over 11.6 million Slurpees are sold every day around the world. That’s enough each year to fill 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools! Our neighbors to the North are big, big fans of the Slurpee – Canadians buy an average of 30 million Slurpees every year, with Winnipeg the world leader in Slurpee Sales.
7-Eleven stores can be found all over the world, with nearly 30% of global locations being found in Japan. That’s more than any other country! Learn more here.