7-Eleven is the world's largest chain of convenience stores. Even largestlargerlarge than McDonald's! Its stores are locateslocatedlocations in eighteen countries, with its largest markets being Japan, the United States, Taiwan, and Thailand. GlobalGloballyGlobalization, it operates franchises or licenses more than 35,200 storestoriesstores. They serve approximately seven million consumerscustomersclients every day.

 

The company originaloriginsoriginated in 1927 in Dallas, Texas, USA, when an employeeemployeremployment of Southland Ice Company, Joe C. Thompson, startstartedstarting selling milk, eggs and bread from an ice shop. Although theirthey'rethere were already some small grocery stores in the area, Thompson, discovered that selling basicbasicallybasics items such as bread and milk reductionreducedreducing the need for people to travel longer distancesdistantdistance to grocery stores.

 

Thompson eventually broughtboughtbout the Southland Ice Company and turned it ontoout ofinto the Southland Corporation which soon opened several locations inonof the Dallas area. Initially, these stores we'rewherewere open from 7a.m. to 11p.m. while most competitioncompetitorscompeting stores opened later and closed much earlier. The company began to usedusinguse the 7-Eleven name in 1946, and by 1952, had opened it isitsit's 100th store. In 1963, 7-Eleven experimented with a 24-hour schedulingschedulesschedule. Aggressive marketing strategicstrategiesstrategy and careful attention to consumer trends propelproperpropelled the company to unprecedented growgrowinggrowth throughout the 70's and mid 80's.

 

Despite stuffstaffstiff competition from similar retailers, 7-Eleven remainingremainremains at the top the convenience store marketingmarketmarkets. In 2008, after placesplacingplaced in the top 10 a respectable 16 times, the companiescompanioncompany was named the number one franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500, beatingbeatingbeat out Subway who had held the number one spotspatspit for 15 years.