Anyone Else Craving a Slurpee?
It's 7-Eleven Day, so live it up!
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Today’s fact is all about convenience.
In its early days, 7-Eleven placed totem poles in front of their buildings and were known as “Tote’m Stores.”
I’m going to level with you: I don’t remember the last time I stepped into a 7-Eleven. There used to be one near our office and I vaguely remember going with a coworker many years ago to buy a lottery ticket during a Powerball craze.
She won a small amount of money, but spent more on ATM fees withdrawing cash, so it was still a net loss. Sounds about right.
Even so, this store was a regular part of my childhood, namely because Slurpees are terrific. They’re icy, sugary drinks you can slug down through a gigantic straw. What more could a kid want?
I also have fond memories of interning at a television station in college and working with a photographer who regularly walked around with Big Gulps to help him stay hydrated and/or caffeinated throughout the day. It’s a vital part of the job.
Today, 7-Eleven has about 85,000 stores across 20 countries. That’s a whole lotta Slurpees. Perhaps you’d even add ice to them.
In fact, if you shopped at 7-Eleven back when it opened in 1927—and when it was named Southland Ice Company—ice was the only thing you could buy.
And now, you can purchase ice makers for the low, low price of $599. What a time to be alive.
Anyway, back to 1927. A Southland Ice Company employee named John Jefferson Green, arguably the most 1920s name imaginable, asked one of Southland’s founding directors, Joe C. Thompson Sr., if he could start selling things besides ice, like bread, milk, and eggs.
Thompson thought this was a wise move. After all, if people could get basic needs all in one place, they wouldn’t have to travel as far. You might even say it was convenient. He gave JJG the go-ahead, and shortly after, Thompson purchased Southland Ice Company entirely, renaming it Southland Corporation and running several locations across the greater Dallas area.
In 1928, a store manager named Jenna Lira had traveled back from Alaska and brought a totem pole with her. She popped that pole right in front of her store, and wouldn’t you know it? It was a marketing gold mine, enticing visitors to come inside.
Southland stores realized this might be good for the brand and went headfirst into the Alaskan Native theme, putting totem poles in front of many stores. They officially became “Tote’m Stores,” because, you know, of the poles, but also because people would “tote” away their essential groceries and other items back to their homes. WORDPLAY!
That “Tote’m” moniker stuck until 1946, when 7-Eleven did what few stores have done before or since: It named itself after its operating hours. From 7 am to 11 pm, it would serve its neighborhoods proudly.
Nowadays, 7-Eleven operates on a 24-hour schedule, but changing to something like 24-Seven just wouldn’t have the same cool rhyming ring to it.
Occasionally, I mix up items from 7-Eleven and the Kwik-E-Mart from old episodes of The Simpsons. If you also run into such an issue, perhaps you’d enjoy this clip of James Woods immersing himself in a role where he plays a convenience store manager.
If you’re near a 7-Eleven and reading this on July 11, your local store is probably giving away free Slurpees right now. If you missed that milestone, just mark your calendar for the next 7/11. I’ll see you there.