7-Eleven: ‘The Landscape is Changing So Fast’
CEO Joe DePinto shares how a 90-year-old chain is working to stay relevant today.
Jan 23, 2019
DALLAS – With companies like Amazon offering super-fast delivery, are traditional convenience stores still relevant? “The landscape is changing so fast. Yes, there’s Amazon and there’s GrubHub. … It’s all about immediate consumption,” Joe DePinto, CEO of 7-Eleven, told the Chicago Tribune.
DePinto wants to keep the chain as relevant today as when it opened its first location 90 years ago. “We have to be prepared and ready in ways that our customers want. And the last four or five years, we’ve had our heads down, grinding it out. And we’re doing a lot of things right,” he said.
As Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives, pointed out, 7-Eleven “is still the face of the industry. … [Millennials] grew up with a different convenience store. … Young people see the convenience store as a place where they can pick up a good sandwich. Older generations think of the bathroom key attached to an old hubcap or a block of wood. That’s not as appealing.”
For 7-Eleven, inventions like the Slurpee helped propel it to national prominence. While regional chains have gathered many local fans, 7-Eleven still owns much of the convenience store landscape with its sheer number of outlets—61,500 U.S. locations in 2016.
The chain, 90% owned by franchisees, has 800 store-branded products from potato chips to beef jerky to batteries and candy. Part of that move has been to capture more of the snacking moments. “The traditional three-meals-a-day has been going away. More than 40 of adults are eating alone and on-the-go,” DePinto said.
