7-Eleven
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The world’s largest convenience store retailer is folding 444 stores in North America due to underperformance.
Perhaps it’s hard for Irving-based 7-Eleven to keep up when competitors are saturated with Beaver Nuggets, frozen yogurt bars and high-end bathrooms.
7-Eleven’s parent company, Seven & i Holdings (soon rebranding to 7-Eleven Corp), revealed the closures in a quarterly earnings presentation last week.
Company leaders acknowledge a tough consumer spending environment, particularly among lower- and middle-income earners.
“There is a growing polarization of consumption due to a decline in labor incomes, which is a result of challenging employment conditions, as well as inflationary pressures and high interest rates,” the company wrote in a financial report.
Seven & i also plans to sell an undisclosed number of North American properties through a sale-leaseback arrangement for a $520 million profit. The deal will allow them to continue operating through these storefronts and is expected to finalize in February 2025.
When Restaurant Dive asked a 7-Eleven spokesperson to confirm the locations of the 444 closing stores and how many stores it plans to lease back, the company said the moves are designed to “optimize the number of non-core assets that do not fit into our growth strategy.”
The spokesperson also said it will continue to open stores in areas where customers are looking for more convenience.
Other brand initiatives have included modernizing food and beverage offerings and refreshing stores to improve appearances and in-store merchandising. By now, we’ve probably all done a double-take when cruising by one of the revamped pit stops.
The closures and leaseback agreements align with Seven & i’s announcement Thursday that it has lowered its net income forecast for the 2024 fiscal year from 293 billion yen ($1.96 billion) to 163 billion yen ($1.09 billion) – a more than 44% decrease.
In more mouth-watering news, the company recently announced a limited-time Chicken & Waffle roller – basically a taquito with “savory chicken battered up with a hint of sweet maple.”
That’s one consolation for those needing to drive more for their Diet Coke fix.