7-eleven planning extensive store expansion effort

Plans have been announced for the opening of some nine hundred new 7-Eleven outlets between now and the end of the year.

The plan, as designed by the Dallas-based convenience store giant, folds into a larger corporation goal of adding as many as 20,000 additional locations within the next eight years.

With around 67,500 stores currently in operation, the 7-Eleven company has been looking for new and innovative ways to maintain its market presence.

Last month 7-Eleven announced it was opening a handful of what it is calling its “lab stores,” a new kind of format that will include bars with wine and beer on tap, restaurants, and coffee shops.

The first Lab Store has already opened in Dallas, with others expected to be inaugurated soon in Washington and San Diego.

In Taiwan, 7-Eleven has introduced a larger store concept that sells everything from clothing to household supplies, and books.

Now the world’s largest convenience retailer, 7-Eleven’s stores typically measure anywhere from 1,000 to 4,500 square feet. Those stores are often built as entirely new stand-alone structures, but are also opened in renovated existing retail space.

The company has additionally solidified its retail position with the recent purchase of more than one thousand convenience stores belonging to the Sunoco company.

According to industry sources, the pace of newly opened 7-Eleven properties works out to an additional store being opened somewhere in the world every three and a half hours.

Where the new nine hundred stores will be built and opened has not yet been announced.

By Garry Boulard

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