blog 1: 7-Eleven Gets Sophisticated.... who knew?

As a person who, for the most part, enjoys stability, I prefer to always go to the same gas station to fill up my car. Since I grew up in Austin and go to school at UT, I have my “usual” gas station by my parents’ home and the one I like best close to campus. Neither one is a 7-Eleven. I had never really given 7-Eleven a thought, usually preferring an Exxon or Diamond Shamrock (now, Valero), but reading this article has changed my mind.

All my attitudes about 7-Eleven were challenged when I read about everything 7-Eleven has done to cater to their consumers, to make their stores more about a high level of convenience rather than a weak attempt to sell normally cheap items at an overcharged price. I was impressed by the change the store has gone through, both technologically and strategically, all for the better good of their customers. By implementing a computer system that allows any store manager to pull up data on his store or any other 7-Eleven at any given time of the day enables him to better serve his customers by letting him prepare and stock his store with more popular items and order fewer of the less popular ones. Because of this technology, inventory doesn’t have time to stack up – the products that are in the stores are the ones the consumers want to buy. The company collects data to make sure it has exactly what its consumers, at that location, during that time of the year, on that day of the week, want. Gathering this information gives the company insight about its customers’ preferences, whether it is a certain muffin when the weather is just right or a guaranteed need for beer during a huge football weekend. 7-Eleven also uses the huge amount of data it gathers in order to predict products their consumers will want to buy in the future. This kind of attention to catering to a customer’s needs is almost unheard of (or at least it was to me) in the convenience store business. To me, customer insight doesn’t get much deeper when you can produce a product your customer does not yet know he needs, but will nevertheless buy when it is introduced to stores in the future, as 7-Eleven did with its coffee wipes.

Strategically, 7-Eleven has fought to break away from its old, truck-driver pit stop image. This image is not entirely 7-Eleven’s fault. I feel like all gas station convenience stores suffer from that stereotype. I mean, when was the last time anyone saw a high-profile celebrity or athlete photographed hanging out at a quickie mart? 7-Eleven, though, has taken huge steps to widening its demographic. The company was one of the first to introduce credit card readers at the pumps, much to the convenience of women who preferred to not leave their children unattended at a gas station. Since then, it has added other, more sophisticated items such as sushi, wine and flowers to appeal to women and, I suppose, classy men. It has done a good job doing so. As its old top sellers, gas and cigarettes, plateau in sales, products, such as the ones mentioned above, are flying off the shelves at an increasingly faster rate. Obviously, the company knows a little something about its consumers.

Reading this article has definitely changed my view of 7-Eleven. Instead of avoiding one to go to my regular gas station, maybe next time I will give 7-Eleven a try. I might even stop in and look around just to appreciate all the effort that was put into deciding which products are on the shelves. And now that I know that Austin is a testing ground for new products and ideas, it is just more incentive to be a part of the changing environment of the convenience store industry.