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Group psychotherapy

Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, including art therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal therapy, but it is usually applied to psychodynamic group therapy where the group context and group process is explicitly utilized as a mechanism of change by developing, exploring and examining interpersonal relationships within the group.

The broader concept of group therapy can be taken to include any helping process that takes place in a group, including support groups, skills training groups (such as anger management, mindfulness, relaxation training or social skills training), and psychoeducation groups. The differences between psychodynamic groups, activity groups, support groups, problem-solving and psychoeducational groups have been discussed by psychiatrist Charles Montgomery. Other, more specialized forms of group therapy would include non-verbal expressive therapies such as art therapy, dance therapy, or music therapy.

History
The founders of group psychotherapy in the United States were Joseph H. Pratt, Trigant Burrow and Paul Schilder. All three of them were active and working at the East Coast in the first half of the 20th century. In 1932 Jacob L. Moreno presented his work on group psychotherapy to the American Psychiatric Association, and co-authored a monograph on the subject. After World War II, group psychotherapy was further developed by Moreno, Samuel Slavson, Hyman Spotnitz, Irvin Yalom, and Lou Ormont. Yalom's approach to group therapy has been very influential not only in the USA but across the world.

An early development in group therapy was the T-group or training group (sometimes also referred to as sensitivity-training group, human relations training group or encounter group), a form of group psychotherapy where participants (typically, between eight and 15 people) learn about themselves (and about small group processes in general) through their interaction with each other. They use feedback, problem solving, and role play to gain insights into themselves, others, and groups. It was pioneered in the mid-1940s by Kurt Lewin and Carl Rogers and his colleagues as a method of learning about human behavior in what became the National Training Laboratories (also known as the NTL Institute) that was created by the Office of Naval Research and the National Education Association in Bethel, Maine, in 1947.

Moreno developed a specific and highly structured form of group therapy known as psychodrama (although the entry on psychodrama claims it is not a form of group therapy). Another recent development in the theory and method of group psychotherapy based on an integration of systems thinking is Yvonne Agazarian's systems-centered therapy (SCT), which sees groups functioning within the principles of system dynamics. Her method of "functional subgrouping" introduces a method of organizing group communication so it is less likely to react counterproductively to differences. SCT also emphasizes the need to recognize the phases of group development and the defenses related to each phase in order to best make sense and influence group dynamics.

In the United Kingdom group psychotherapy initially developed independently, with pioneers S. H. Foulkes and Wilfred Bion using group therapy as an approach to treating combat fatigue in the Second World War. Foulkes and Bion were psychoanalysts and incorporated psychoanalysis into group therapy by recognising that transference can arise not only between group members and the therapist but also among group members. Furthermore, the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious was extended with a recognition of a group unconscious, in which the unconscious processes of group members could be acted out in the form of irrational processes in group sessions. Foulkes developed the model known as group analysis and the Institute of Group Analysis, while Bion was influential in the development of group therapy at the Tavistock Clinic.

Bion's approach is comparable to social therapy, first developed in the United States in the late 1970s by Lois Holzman and Fred Newman, which is a group therapy in which practitioners relate to the group, not its individuals, as the fundamental unit of development. The task of the group is to "build the group" rather than focus on problem solving or "fixing" individuals.

In Argentina an independent school of group analysis stemmed from the work and teachings of Swiss-born Argentine psychoanalyst Enrique Pichon-Rivière. This thinker conceived of a group-centered approach which, although not directly influenced by Foulkes' work, was fully compatible with it.

Therapeutic principles
Irvin Yalom proposed a number of therapeutic factors (originally termed curative factors but renamed therapeutic factors in the 5th edition of The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (1st edition 1970, 5th edition 2005).
 * Universality
 * The recognition of shared experiences and feelings among group members and that these may be widespread or universal human concerns, serves to remove a group member's sense of isolation, validate their experiences, and raise self-esteem

 * Altruism
 * The group is a place where members can help each other, and the experience of being able to give something to another person can lift the member's self esteem and help develop more adaptive coping styles and interpersonal skills.

 * Instillation of hope
 * In a mixed group that has members at various stages of development or recovery, a member can be inspired and encouraged by another member who has overcome the problems with which they are still struggling.

 * Imparting information
 * While this is not strictly speaking a psychotherapeutic process, members often report that it has been very helpful to learn factual information from other members in the group. For example, about their treatment or about access to services.

 * Corrective recapitulation of the primary family experience
 * Members often unconsciously identify the group therapist and other group members with their own parents and siblings in a process that is a form of transference specific to group psychotherapy. The therapist's interpretations can help group members gain understanding of the impact of childhood experiences on their personality, and they may learn to avoid unconsciously repeating unhelpful past interactive patterns in present-day relationships.

 * Development of socializing techniques
 * The group setting provides a safe and supportive environment for members to take risks by extending their repertoire of interpersonal behaviour and improving their social skills

 * Imitative behaviour
 * One way in which group members can develop social skills is through a modeling process, observing and imitating the therapist and other group members. For example, sharing personal feelings, showing concern, and supporting others.

 * Cohesiveness
 * It has been suggested that this is the primary therapeutic factor from which all others flow. Humans are herd animals with an instinctive need to belong to groups, and personal development can only take place in an interpersonal context. A cohesive group is one in which all members feel a sense of belonging, acceptance, and validation.

 * Existential factors
 * Learning that one has to take responsibility for one's own life and the consequences of one's decisions.

 * Catharsis
 * Catharsis is the experience of relief from emotional distress through the free and uninhibited expression of emotion. When members tell their story to a supportive audience, they can obtain relief from chronic feelings of shame and guilt.

 * Interpersonal learning
 * Group members achieve a greater level of self-awareness through the process of interacting with others in the group, who give feedback on the member's behaviour and impact on others.

 * Self-understanding
 * This factor overlaps with interpersonal learning but refers to the achievement of greater levels of insight into the genesis of one's problems and the unconscious motivations that underlie one's behaviour.

Settings
Group therapy can form part of the therapeutic milieu of a psychiatric in-patient unit or ambulatory psychiatric partial hospitalization (also known as day hospital treatment). In addition to classical "talking" therapy, group therapy in an institutional setting can also include group-based expressive therapies such as drama therapy, psychodrama, art therapy, and non-verbal types of therapy such as music therapy and dance/movement therapy.

Group psychotherapy is a key component of milieu therapy in a therapeutic community. The total environment or milieu is regarded as the medium of therapy, all interactions and activities regarded as potentially therapeutic and are subject to exploration and interpretation, and are explored in daily or weekly community meetings. However, interactions between the culture of group psychotherapeutic settings and the more managerial norms of external authorities may create 'organizational turbulence' which can critically undermine a group's ability to maintain a safe yet challenging 'formative space'. Academics at the University of Oxford studied the inter-organizational dynamics of a national democratic therapeutic community over a period of four years; they found external steering by authorities eroded the community's therapeutic model, produced a crisis, and led to an intractable conflict which resulted in the community's closure.

A form of group therapy has been reported to be effective in psychotic adolescents and recovering addicts. Projective psychotherapy uses an outside text such as a novel or motion picture to provide a "stable delusion" for the former cohort and a safe focus for repressed and suppressed emotions or thoughts in the latter. Patient groups read a novel or collectively view a film. They then participate collectively in the discussion of plot, character motivation and author motivation. In the case of films, sound track, cinematography and background are also discussed and processed. Under the guidance of the therapist, defense mechanisms are bypassed by the use of signifiers and semiotic processes. The focus remains on the text rather than on personal issues. It was popularized in the science fiction novel, Red Orc's Rage.

Group therapy is now often utilized in private practice settings.

Group analysis has become widespread in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom, where it has become the most common form of group psychotherapy. Interest from Australia, the former Soviet Union and the African continent is also growing.

Research on effectiveness
A 2008 meta-analysis found that individual therapy may be slightly more effective than group therapy initially, but this difference seems to disappear after 6 months. There is clear evidence for the effectiveness of group psychotherapy for depression: a meta-analysis of 48 studies showed an overall effect size of 1.03, which is clinically highly significant. Similarly, a meta-analysis of five studies of group psychotherapy for adult sexual abuse survivors showed moderate to strong effect sizes, and there is also good evidence for effectiveness with chronic traumatic stress in war veterans.

There is less robust evidence of good outcomes for patients with borderline personality disorder, with some studies showing only small to moderate effect sizes. The authors comment that these poor outcomes might reflect a need for additional support for some patients, in addition to the group therapy. This is borne out by the impressive results obtained using mentalization-based treatment, a model that combines dynamic group psychotherapy with individual psychotherapy and case management.

Most outcome research is carried out using time-limited therapy with diagnostically homogenous groups. However, long-term intensive interactional group psychotherapy assumes diverse and diagnostically heterogeneous group membership, and an open-ended time scale for therapy. Good outcomes have also been demonstrated for this form of group therapy.

Computer-supported group therapy
Research on computer-supported and computer-based interventions has increased significantly since the mid-1990s. For a comprehensive overview of current practices see: Computer-supported psychotherapy.

Several feasibility studies examined the impact of computer-, app- and media-support on group interventions. Most investigated interventions implemented short rationales, which usually were based on principles of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Most research focussed on:

 * Anxiety disorders (e.g. social phobia, generalised anxiety disorder )
 * Depression (e.g. mild to moderate Major Depression )
 * Other disorders (e.g. hoarding )

While the evidence base for group therapy is very limited, preliminary research in individual therapy suggests possible increases of treatment efficiency or effectiveness. Further, the use of app- or computer-based monitoring has been investigated several times. Reported advantages of the modern format include improved between-session transfer and patient-therapist-communication, as well as increased treatment transparency and intensity. Negative effects may occur in terms of dissonance due to non-compliance with online tasks, or the constriction of in-session group interaction. Last but not least, group phenomena might influence the motivation to engage with online tasks.

title: Group psychotherapy


text:
Convenience store

A convenience store, convenience shop, bodega, corner store or corner shop is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as tea, coffee, groceries, fruits, vegetables, snacks, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery tickets, over-the-counter drugs, toiletries, newspapers and magazines.

In some jurisdictions, convenience stores are licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, although many jurisdictions limit such beverages to those with relatively low alcohol content, like beer and wine. The stores may also offer money order and wire transfer services, along with the use of a fax machine or photocopier for a small per-copy cost. Some also sell tickets or recharge smart cards, e.g. OPUS cards in Montreal, Canada or include a small deli. They differ from general stores and village shops in that they are not in a rural location and are used as a convenient (hence their common name) supplement to larger stores.

A convenience store may be part of a gas/petrol station, so customers can purchase goods while refuelling their vehicle. It may be located alongside a busy road, in an urban area, near a railway or railroad station or other transport hub. In some countries, convenience stores have long shopping hours and some remain open 24 hours.

Convenience stores often charge significantly higher prices than conventional grocery stores or supermarkets, as they buy smaller quantities of inventory at higher per-unit prices from wholesalers. Customers benefit from their longer open hours, more convenient and greater number of locations and shorter cashier lines.

Terminology
A convenience store may also be called a cold store, party store (Michigan), bodega (New York City), carry out, mini-market, mini-mart, corner shop, deli or milk bar (Australia), dairy (New Zealand), superette (New Zealand, parts of Canada, and in parts of the US), corner store (many parts of English-speaking Canada and New England), a späti (from 'spätkauf' (lit. 'buy-late') in Germany, a konbini (コンビニ in Japanese) in Japan, based on the English loanword 'convenience', dépanneur or dep (used in Canada, primarily Quebec, in both English and French. It is a loanword from the French 'troubleshooter').

Merchandise

Various types include, for example, liquor stores (off-licences-offices), mini-markets (mini-marts), general stores or party stores. Typically confectionery (sweets, ice cream, soft drinks), lottery tickets, newspapers and magazines are sold, although merchandise varies widely from store to store. Unless the outlet is a liquor store, the range of alcoholic beverages is likely to be limited (i.e. beer and wine) or non-existent. Most stores sell cigarettes and other tobacco products (e.g. cigarette papers, pipe tobacco, cigars and e-liquid for e-cigarettes). In many North American jurisdictions, tobacco products comprise the greatest portion of gross sales at convenience stores, between 25% and 35%.

Varying degrees of food and grocery supplies are usually available, from household products to prepackaged foods like sandwiches and frozen burritos. Automobile-related items—such as motor oil, maps and car kits—may be sold. Often toiletries and other hygiene products are stocked, as well as sanitary products and contraception. Stores may carry apparel, home furnishings, CDs, and DVDs. Some stores offer money orders and wire transfer services. They may carry small appliances, as well as other household items such as coolers and backpacks. Convenience stores have also been known to carry candles, stationery, artwork, and crockery.

Many convenience shops offer food ready-to-eat, such as breakfast sandwiches and fry-ups. Throughout Europe, it is now common for convenience stores to sell fresh French bread (or similar). A process of freezing parbaked bread allows easy shipment (often from France) and baking in-store. Some shops have a delicatessen counter, offering custom-made sandwiches and baguettes. Others have racks offering fresh delivered or baked doughnuts from local doughnut shops. Some shops have a self-service microwave oven for heating purchased food.

Fast food items are often available, with stores offering such food either under its owner banner or in partnership with a fast-food chain maintaining a counter in the store. To save space, food is not prepared in the store. Instead, these counters offer a limited menu of items delivered several times a day from a local branch of the restaurant, with items intended to be served hot either kept hot under a warming device or reheated as ordered.

Convenience stores may be combined with other services, such as general stores and pawn shops, a ticket counter for purchasing railway tickets, a post office counter, or gasoline pumps. In Asian countries like Japan or Taiwan, convenience stores are more common because of the higher population density. They are found with gasoline and train stations, but also can be stand-alone stores. Items such as soft drinks or snacks, hot dogs, sausages and fish cakes can be found in these stores. Delicatessens are absent; instead, pre-made sandwiches are available. Non-consumables such as magazines are also sold, but to a lesser degree. Many convenience stores have a beverage fountain that offers coffee, soft drinks, and frozen beverages.

Stores often stock fast-moving consumer goods; items with a high turnover are preferred over items with a lower sales rate. The smaller convenience stores typically have few perishable items because it is not economically viable to rotate perishables frequently with a low number of staff. Smaller convenience stores also do not generate the business needed to sustain food spoilage rates typical of grocery stores or supermarkets. As such, products with a long shelf life are the rule, unless a product is specifically aimed at attracting customers on the chance they may buy something profitable, too.

Differences from supermarkets
Although larger, newer convenience stores may have a wide range of items, the selection is still limited compared to supermarkets, and in many stores only one or two choices are available. Prices in a convenience store are often higher than those at a supermarket, mass merchandise store or auto supply store, as convenience stores order smaller quantities of inventory at higher per-unit prices from wholesalers. Some convenience stores are similar to corner markets, but often have less variety in food.

Product containers in a convenience store are often smaller with reduced product quantity to allow more products on the store shelves. This reduces the apparent cost differences between full-size packaging in supermarkets. Reduced packaging also reduces waste when a traveller such as a hotel guest does not want to or cannot carry leftover product with them when they depart.

The average U.S. convenience store has a sales area of 2768 sqft. New stores average about 2800 sqft of sales area and about 1900 sqft of non-sales area—a nod to retailers recognising the importance of creating destinations within the store that require additional space—whether coffee islands, food service areas with seating, or financial services kiosks. Convenience stores have expanded their offerings over the last few years, with stores becoming a part-supermarket, restaurant, gas station and even a bank or drug store.

In the United States, convenience stores are sometimes the only businesses near an interstate highway exit where drivers can buy any kind of food or drink for miles. Most of the profit margin from these stores comes from beer, liquor and cigarettes. Although those three categories themselves usually yield lower margins per item, the sales volume in them generally compensates for it. Profits per item are much higher on deli items (bags of ice, chicken, etc.), but sales are generally lower. In some countries, convenience stores have longer shopping hours, some being open 24 hours.

Australia
The Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS), the peak body for Australian convenience stores, defines a convenience store as a "retail business with the primary emphasis placed on providing the public with a convenient location to quickly purchase from an array of consumable products, predominantly food and beverages, services as well as petrol." The product mix includes: food to go, beverages, dispensed/barista coffee, snacks (including confectionery), tobacco, basic groceries, ice, petrol and carwash. Stores may offer services such as ATMs, "click & collect", gas bottle exchange, money transfer and lottery tickets. A key feature of convenience stores is their extended hours of operation. Many are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The majority of convenience stores in Australia are small businesses, being either independently owned or operated under franchise or licence agreement. The industry comprises over 6,000 stores and employs well over 40,000 people as of mid-2018. The Australian convenience channel merchandise sales are valued at $8.4 billion (excluding petrol sales) according to the AACS State of the Industry Report 2017. Australia has a flourishing convenience industry with a number of well-known convenience brands including: 7-Eleven, Ampol, NightOwl, Ezymart, BP, APCO, Coles Express, On The Run, Viva Energy, Freedom Fuels and Puma.

Canada

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., which operates Couche-Tard, Provi-Soir, Dépanneur 7, Circle K, Mac's, Winks, and Becker's, is the largest convenience store chain in Canada and receives its products through Core-Mark International, a North American distribution company specializing in fresh convenience. Another large chain is Quickie Mart (whose name predates the fictitious "Kwik-E-Mart" featured on The Simpsons). The world's largest convenience retailer, 7-Eleven, has about 500 Canadian locations from British Columbia to Ontario. Worldwide, the highest number of the chain's Slurpee beverages are sold in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the city has been awarded the title of the "Slurpee Capital of the World" for many years running. Marketing itself as "more than just a convenience store", there are over 260 Hasty Market locations throughout Ontario and one in British Columbia.

In addition to chain convenience stores, there are also many independently owned convenience stores in Canada.

Convenience stores are also commonly referred to as "corner stores", "mini-marts" or "variety stores" in some regions of Canada. In the French-speaking province of Quebec, a convenience store is known as a "dépanneur" or "dep" for short, even among some when speaking in English.

Chile
Chilean convenience stores are typically found at gas stations in most urban and near-urban areas on highways. Examples include Punto/Pronto (owned by Copec), Spacio 1 (Petrobras, formerly called Tigermarket and On The Run before Esso Chile was owned by Petrobras), Va y Ven (Terpel), Upa!, Upita! and Select (from Shell).

Other brands operating mostly in downtowns and middle-to-upperclass neighborhoods are Ok! Market (owned by Unimarc), Big John and Oxxo (owned by FEMSA) and some small-scale "minisupermercados" akin to mom and pop stores.

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, family-owned and operated convenience stores called pulperías have been common since the 1900s, and there are many of those stores in every neighbourhood.

In the 2010s, modern convenience stores were introduced, mainly by the AMPM company. Competitors launched brands such as Musmanni Mini Super (a chain of bakery stores promoted to convenience stores), Vindi (operated by AutoMercado supermarket company) and Fresh Market (operated by AMPM in a format appealing to prosperous neighborhoods).

Finland
In Finland, convenience stores are referred to as kiosks, except for those found inside service stations, which are referred to simply as stores. The biggest convenience store chain is R-Kioski, with over 560 kiosks across the country, which are all franchise-licensed businesses. There are some independent convenience stores that use the word Kymppi or number 10 in their business name, which is reminiscent of a former large convenience store chain called 10-Kioski, which vanished around the early 2000s. Kymppi is a spoken colloquial word for number 10 ("kymmenen") in Finnish.

Smaller towns often have independent kiosks. Convenience stores at service stations are run by either the station's parent oil company such as Shell or by either of the two major retail corporations in Finland, Kesko or S Group. Virtually all staffed service stations have a small convenience store.

France
In France chain convenience stores are referred to as "supérettes", implying they are mini-supermarkets. Brands include Carrefour City, Casino Shop, Coccimarket, Daily Monop', Franprix, G20, Leader Price Express, Marché Plus, Sherpa, Sitis, Spar, Utile, Vival... (see Magasin de proximité).

Some other, independent convenience shops are referred to as "" – "Arab on the corner", due to many Arabic-speaking immigrants form Northwest Africa who work in this sector of the economy. These shops often stay open later than the "épiceries" or groceries, even on public holidays. Shop owners consider the name improper, especially those who come from other ethnic groups, including Imazighen. (See Arabe du coin for more details on their ethnic origins.)

Germany
Berliners lovingly refer to the small neighbourhood shops with late opening times found throughout the city (often operated by families with immigrant roots, akin to France) as Späti (translating to "Lat(e)y", derived from Spätkauf, "late purchase"). In North Rhine-Westfalia people call the same kind of shop either Kiosk, like the Finnish, (using the word in a way differing from the rest of Germany, where "Kiosk" usually means only stall-like buildings or other very small window-selling shops which are not entered by customers and which sell either newspapers and magazines or snacks and cigarettes, or a combination of these, but no household goods) or Trinkhalle ("drinking hall"), although they are not pubs, as the name might suggest.

A name used for market stalls and also in some regions for little shops is Büdchen (from Bude, "stall, hut, room"); where no special local name for them exists, often just the equivalents of "small shop" or "corner shop" are used ("der kleine Laden/ das Lädchen/ das Lädchen an der Ecke").

Snack shops integrated into petrol stations can also have long opening hours, but in contrast to the neighbourhood Späti-type shops, petrol station shops nowadays are usually part of large retail chains. "" (aunt-Emma-shop) is used as a nostalgic term for old-fashioned general stores (typically family owned), the historic predecessors of modern discounters and supermarkets which they were replaced by (similar to mom-and-pop stores).

India
In India, "mom-and-pop" convenience stores are called kirana stores and constitute part of the traditional food retail system. Kirana are typically family-owned stores that operate in fixed locations and carry both basic food and non-food items.

Indonesia
Supermarket-styled convenience stores in Indonesia (commonly known as "minimarket") are mostly scattered around the towns. Due to local government restrictions in Indonesia, usually convenience stores may only be built at least 500 meters from the nearest traditional market. This allows traditional markets to continue selling local goods, but also greatly lowers the opportunities for profit by those who seek to build or own a convenience store by reducing the eligibility of property to be developed into a convenience store. This is especially true in small towns and rural areas. As a result, convenience stores in rural areas are often built side-by-side or at maximum within 50 meters of each other.

The two major national convenience store chains in Indonesia are Indomaret and Alfamart, both of which serve almost all areas within the country. Foreign chains like Family Mart, Circle K or Lawson, on the other hand, have their stores in big cities and cater to a specific lifestyle instead of focusing on "convenience". To be classified as a convenience store, the store should occupy no more than 100 square meters of service area; in some local residences, the limit is 250 square meters.

The Indonesian government also regulates the convenience store license process, so it can only be bought by franchisees, using a different name and different brand, or classifying it as cafeteria. A convenience store with a cafeteria license is only allowed to sell a maximum 10% of its service space for non-food/beverages product. This type of convenience store often puts lawn chairs and a desk as a decoy in front of their stores, while offering the same range of products as a holder of a mini market license.

There are many small neighborhood stores, known as toko kelontong or warung. Some are sponsored by a network of stores, mostly owned by cigarette companies (such as DRP by Djarum, GGSP by Gudang Garam or SRC by Sampoerna) or tech companies (such as Mitra Bukalapak or Mitra Tokopedia).

Japan
Convenience stores (コンビニエンスストア), often shortened to konbini (コンビニ), developed at a tremendous rate in Japan. 7-Eleven Japan, while struggling to localize their service in the 1970s to 1980s, evolved its point of sale-based business, until ultimately, Seven & I Holdings Co., the parent company of 7-Eleven Japan, acquired 7-Eleven (US) from Southland Corporation in 1991. Japanese-style convenience stores also heavily influenced those stores in other Asian regions or countries, such as Mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea.

Convenience stores rely heavily on the point of sale. Customers' ages and gender, as well as tomorrow's weather forecast, are important data. Stores place all orders online. As store floor space is limited, they must be careful in choosing what brands to sell. In many cases, several stores from the same chain do business in neighboring areas. This strategy makes distribution to each store cheaper, as well as making multiple deliveries per day possible. Generally, food goods are delivered to each store two to five times a day from factories. Since products are delivered as needed, stores do not need large stock areas.

According to The Japan Franchise Association, (data pertaining to the month of July 2021), there are 55,931 convenience stores in Japan. 7-Eleven leads the market with 12,467 stores, followed by: Lawson (9,562) and FamilyMart (7,604). Other operators include Circle K Sunkus (acquired by Family Mart in 2016; now defunct), Daily Yamazaki, Ministop, Am/Pm Japan (acquired by Family Mart in 2009; now defunct), Poplar, Coco Store (acquired by Family Mart in 2015; now defunct) and Seico Mart. Many items available in larger supermarkets can be found in Japanese convenience stores, though the selection is usually smaller. As well, the following additional services are also commonly available:
 * Courier and postal service.
 * Photocopying and fax service.
 * Automated teller machines.
 * Payment service for utilities and other bills and taxes.
 * Ticket service for concerts, theme parks, airlines etc.
 * Pre-paid cards for cellular phones.

Some stores also sell charging service for electronic money and ATM services for credit card or consumer finance. Items not commonly sold include: Slurpees, lottery tickets, car supplies and gasoline.

Konbini also offer customers the option of making konbini payments (often also referred to as just konbini), an offline payment solution that allows customers without credit or debit cards to make online purchases. A consumer can buy online services or goods, such as video games on Steam or tickets for events. By selecting konbini as payment method at the checkout, the consumer receives a unique transaction code with an expiration date. Depending on the brand (i.e. 7–11 is slightly different from Family Mart), consumers will have to go to any convenience store and finalise the purchase, which can be either at the cashier or at the kiosk. Multiple providers offer konbini as checkout option for foreign companies selling online in Japan, such as Adyen, Degica and Ingenico ePayments.

In 1974, Japan had 1,000 convenience stores. In 1996, Japan had 47,000 convenience stores and the number was increasing by 1,500 annually. Peter Landers of the Associated Press said that the computerised distribution system allows Japanese convenience stores to stock a wider variety of products, allowing them to be more competitive in the marketplace. Because of this technology and the consequent ease of maintaining the right amount of stock, Japan can support one convenience store for every 2,000 people, while in the United States it is one per 8,000 people. Another contributing factor to the widespread proliferation of convenience stores is that, because Japan has a lower crime rate, store owners are not reluctant to keep stores open at late hours in the night and customers are not reluctant to shop during those times.

Malaysia
In Malaysia, 7-Eleven is the market leader in convenience shops, with over 2,000 shops. Other convenience shops in the country are myNEWS.com, 99 Speedmart, KK Super Mart, Quick and Easy and MyMart (owned by Mydin). FamilyMart is also found in Malaysia and as of July 2020, has opened its 200th store in Malaysia with the goal of opening 1000 stores by 2025, bringing the 'konbini' concept to Malaysia.

Convenience stores are very popular among Malaysians, especially urban dwellers in Kuala Lumpur or other populated towns like Penang where the population density is higher. Its 24/7 policy allows Malaysians to have easy access to necessities or as an alternative hang-out area, especially since Malaysians love to go out for midnight supper at mamaks and eateries that also open late at night, as more and more Malaysians are beginning to work or go out late. The availability of fresh hot food or cold premade food is popular among young workers with less time to prepare food for themselves, as many have irregular work hours, especially in the city. It also eases the burden of families. Many Malaysians also enjoy the seasonal food that these stores provide. These stores can be found almost anywhere, especially in areas with a higher population density, such as city centres, condominiums, apartment complexes, office areas, residential areas, shop lots and petrol stations, although the store density is as high as Taiwan or Japan.

Items sold at such convenience shops usually range from pre-made local food like nasi lemak, onigiri, buns, snacks, toiletries, drinks, a limited amount of alcohol, newspapers, magazines, slushies, cup noodles, ice cream, hot food, oden, game reload and mobile top up cards. Some also have the service of reloading Touch N' Go cards or ATMs. Most have a microwave oven and hot water boiler to heat food. Some have seasonal and limited food, desserts or special imported products and items, like FamilyMart importing strawberry Coca-Cola from Japan.

Malaysia has sundry shops that sell daily items and perishables at lower prices, but unlike convenience shops, they are not open 24/7. Some of these sundry shops also sell traditional herbs and ingredients.

Mexico
Oxxo is the largest chain in the country, with more than 15,000 stores around the country. Other convenience stores, such as Tiendas Extra, 7-Eleven, SuperCity, ampm, and Circle K, are also found in Mexico. The first convenience store in the country, Super 7 (now a 7-Eleven), was opened in 1976 in Monterrey, Nuevo León. There are also some regional chains, like Amigo Express and CB Mas, that operate in Comarca Lagunera, Super Q and El Matador in Queretaro, Coyote in central Mexico, Kiosko in Colima and some locations in nearby states, and JV in northeastern Mexico. Stores sell fast food like coffee, hot dogs, nachos and prepaid cellphones between MXN$20 and MXN$500, mainly Telcel and Movistar, newspapers, magazines, and Panini products and other novelties.

Misceláneas (literally meaning "place where miscellaneous items are sold" and otherwise called tiendas de abarrotes (grocery store) in some parts of the country) are smaller, family-run convenience stores often found in central and southern Mexico. They operate in many locations, from rural communities to suburban residential neighborhoods, usually located in front of or below the family's residence. They often fulfill the role of neighborhood meeting points and places to disseminate community news. While offering a more limited, and sometimes varied, assortment of items than corporate chains, they fill a void in areas where corporations do not operate. Usually they sell homemade snacks such as tortas and sandwiches, made by the owners. They also provide items in smaller quantities than would be offered for sale in larger stores and markets; for example, selling single cigarettes along with full packs.

Mongolia
In Mongolia, convenience shops (CU (store), Circle K etc.) are already common and continue to gain popularity, making the market increasingly saturated with retailers. Currently CU (store) is the market leader, with the largest number of stores and the highest reputation among customers.

New Zealand
In New Zealand, convenience shops are commonly referred to as dairies and superettes. Dairies in New Zealand are generally independently owned and operated. The use of the term dairy to describe convenience shops was common in New Zealand by the late 1930s. Dairies carved out a niche in food retail by keeping longer trading hours than groceries and supermarkets – dairies were exempt from labour laws restricting trading hours and Saturday trading. With the deregulation of trading hours and in the wake of legislation in 1989 prohibiting sales of alcohol by dairies, the distinction between dairies, superettes and groceries has blurred.

Peru
Convenience stores in Peru are typically independent corner stores called "bodegas" that include groceries, alcohol, services and phone booths. Other convenience stores are found at gas stations in urban and connecting areas on highways; examples include Listo! (owned by Primax) and Repshop (Repsol). Recently, Tambo+, owned by Corporación Lindley S.A., has quickly become the biggest convenience store in the country with 300 stores opened in just two years. Mexican-owned Oxxo has plans to expand to Peru.

Poland
Żabka is one of the largest convenience stores in Poland. In 2022 Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the Law and Justice party, said that the Polish ruling government might buy Żabka convenience store from CVC Capital Partners.

Philippines
There is a local version of convenience store in the Philippines, called the sari-sari store, that is located on almost every street, corner, residential area, and other public places around the country.

Aside from local convenience stores, other popular international convenience stores are present on almost every street, especially in urban areas. 7-Eleven is the largest convenience store chain in the country. It is run by the Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC). Its first store, located in Quezon City, opened in 1984, and has now approximately 2,285 branches.

There are also many branches of Uncle John's, operated by Robinsons Convenience Stores, Inc.; FamilyMart, operated and franchised by Udenna Corporation; and All Day Convenience Store, owned by Filipino entrepreneur and former Philippine Senator, Manny Villar. Lawson, Circle-K and Alfamart have also opened stores in the country.

Russia

Major brands of convenience stores in Russia are Pyatyorochka ("little 5") with over 10000 shops functioning, Monetka ("little coin"), "Magnit u doma", "Krasnoe i Beloe" and Diksi. However, Russians may occasionally use the word "supermarket": various convenience store chains used to position themselves as "supermarkets" throughout 1990's, such as now discontinued "Sed'moy Kontinent" (translates as "the 7th Continent") company.

Pyatyorochka line of stores has self-checkout tills, as well as Perekryostok line of stores. Both brands belong to X5 Group and even have a mutually compatible "club card". However, many discounts/sales in both stores require buyers to have "loyalty cards" to unlock the wares' respective discounts.

Singapore
Major convenience shops in Singapore are 7-Eleven owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings and Cheers owned by NTUC Fairprice. Figures from the Singapore Department of Statistics showed that there are 338 7-Eleven shops and 91 Cheers outlets in 2004. Other convenience shops such as Myshop and One Plus appeared in 1983. Myshop belongs to a Japanese company, and One Plus belongs to Emporium Holdings.

Various reasons unique to Singapore have been given for the popularity of convenience shops. Convenience shops sell a wide range of imported goods, whereas minimarts and provision shops sell local products with a limited range of non-Asian products. Convenience shops are situated within housing estates, thus reducing consumers' travel time. Most families in Singapore are dual-income families. Since both spouses work, there is greater need for convenience in shopping for daily necessities. The 24-hour opening policy allows convenience shops to reach out to a larger group of consumers. First, the policy caters to the shopping needs of consumers who work shifts or have irregular working hours. Secondly, the policy caters to the increasing number of Singaporeans who keep late hours. A 2005 economic review by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) reported that 54% of Singaporeans stayed up past midnight.

7-Eleven

7-Eleven began the trend of convenience shops in Singapore when it opened its first shop in 1982 by Jardine Matheson Group, under a franchise agreement with Southland Corporation of the United States. Dairy Farm International Holdings acquired the chain from Jardine Matheson Group in 1989.

The number of 7-Eleven outlets continued to increase in 1984 while other chains were having difficulty expanding. One Plus was unable to expand due to the shortage of good sites. The original owners of the Myshop franchise, which had seven outlets, sold out to one of its suppliers due to a lack of demand.

In 1985, 7-Eleven faced difficulty in finding favourable locations and failed to meet its one-shop-a-month target. The situation improved in 1986 with a new Housing Development Board (HDB) tendering system, which allowed 7-Eleven to secure shops without having to bid too high a price. 7-Eleven shops are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including Sundays and public holidays. This 24/7 policy was seen as the reason that gave 7-Eleven its edge over its competitors.

In 1990, there was a rise in the number of shop thefts in 7-Eleven. The shoplifters were usually teenagers who stole small items such as chocolates, cigarettes and beer. In response to the increase in the number of thefts, 7-Eleven stepped up security measures, which successfully lowered the crime rate by 60%.

Cheers
Started in 1999, Cheers is owned by local corporation NTUC FairPrice. Cheers has adopted 7-Eleven's 24/7 model and taken similar security measures to prevent cases of shoplifting. Convenience shop owners seeking franchising seem to prefer Cheers over 7-Eleven, probably due to its cheaper franchise fee.

South Africa
In South Africa's black townships spaza shops sell small goods, often out of the proprietors' homes. However these businesses face competition from large chain stores. Spaza shops owned by immigrants have also become a source of tension in townships.

In white, Indian and Coloured areas, the corner cafe (called a tea room in Durban) is a convenience store. In white areas these were often owned by Southern European migrants. These cafes are being superseded by convenience stores that are part of fuel service stations.

South Korea
Convenience stores in the Republic of Korea date to 1982, when Lotte opened a store in Seoul. Stores saw growth after the 1988 Summer Olympics with the first 7-Eleven, and even since the 2010s where department stores and marts have struggled. As of 2016, the market leader is CU (store) with a 33.3% share, GS25 with a 28.6% share, then 7-Eleven and ministop.

Taiwan
Boasting more than 10,000 convenience stores in an area of 35,980 km2 and a population of 23 million, Taiwan has Asia Pacific's and the world's second highest density of convenience stores per person after South Korea: one store per 2,065 people. With 4,665 7-Eleven stores, Taiwan also has the world's highest density of 7-Elevens per person: one store per 4,930 people. In Taipei, it is not unusual to see two 7-Elevens across the street or several of them within a few hundred meters of each other.

Taiwan's second largest convenience store chain is FamilyMart with more than 3,000 locations. Also competing for customers are Hi-Mart, a Taiwanese chain, and OK Mart, a local version of Circle K.

Because they are found everywhere, convenience stores in Taiwan provide services on behalf of financial institutions and government agencies, such as collection of city parking fees, utility bills, traffic violation fines, and credit card payments. Eighty percent of urban household shoppers in Taiwan visit a convenience store each week.

United Kingdom
The corner shop in the United Kingdom grew from the start of the Industrial Revolution, with large populations moving from the agricultural countryside to newly built model townships and later terraced housing in towns and cities. Corner shops were locally owned small businesses, started by entrepreneurs who often had other careers prior to establishing, such a trading business. Many well-known high street retail brands, such as Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's and latterly Tesco, originated during the Victorian era as simple, family-owned corner shops.

The name corner shop originated because such shops are traditionally located on the corner of an intersection.

The reign of the corner shop and the weekly market started to fade post–World War II, with the combination of the personal motor car and the introduction from the 1950s onwards of the American-originated supermarket format. The market shift in price and convenience led to the establishment of common trading brands operating as virtual franchises to win back the consumer, including: Budgens, Costcutter, Londis, Nisa and SPAR. There was also a consolidation of some shops under some larger corporate-owned brands, including One Stop and RS McColl.

The primary competition to this privately owned 'corner shop' model came from the network of consumer cooperatives which were created after the success of that created by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844. Rather than being owned by individuals, these shops were owned by their customer-members and, owing to their popularity, the number of co-operative shops had reached 1,439 by 1900. Co-operatives came about as a response to the problem of adulterated food which existed at the time, and later they enabled members to buy types of food that they would otherwise be unable to afford. At their peak in the 1950s, consumers' co-operatives accounted for approximately 20% of the UK grocery market; however with increasing competition this has decreased to around 6% in 2015.

Due to a number of mergers over the years, the grocery co-operative sector in the UK is now predominately composed of the national The Co-operative Group and a few large regional co-operative societies such as the Midcounties Co-operative and Scotmid. Today, the majority of food retailing co-operatives societies brand their convenience shops as Co-op Food, and together they form the second-largest convenience shop chain in the UK and the largest by number of shops, with one in every UK postal code.

From the late-1960s onwards, many such shops started to be owned by expatriate African-born Indians, expelled from their homelands by the newly independent countries' rulers (see Expulsion of Asians from Uganda). Under the Shops Act 1950, Sunday trading had been illegal for most traders, with exceptions only allowed for small shops selling perishable items (i.e. milk, bread, butter, fresh meat and vegetables), and most shops that were not off licences (i.e. selling alcohol) had to close at 20:00. The Sunday Trading Act 1994 allowed large format shops over 280 square metres or 3,000 square feet in size to open on Sunday for not more than six hours despite several proposals from the citizens to remove restrictions at different times.

More recently, due to a combination of competition laws and a lack of large-scale development space, many of the larger retail brands have now developed shop formats based around convenience shop and corner shop scale spaces, including Sainsbury's Local, Little Waitrose and Tesco Express.

United States
In-store convenience store sales grew 2.4%, reaching a record $195.0 billion in 2011. Combined with $486.9 billion in motor fuels sales, total convenience store sales in 2011 were $681.9 billion, or one out of every 22 dollars of the overall $15.04 trillion U.S. gross domestic product. In New York City, "bodega" has come to mean any convenience store or deli.

The first chain convenience store in the United States was opened in Dallas, Texas in 1927 by the Southland Ice Company, which eventually became 7-Eleven, the largest convenience store chain. Stores connected to a service station developed into a trend, celebrated by some progressive architects:

In 1939, a dairy owner named J.J. Lawson started a store at his dairy plant near Akron, Ohio, to sell his milk. The Lawson's Milk Company grew to a chain of stores, primarily in Ohio. Circle K, another large company-owned convenience store chain, was founded in 1951.

Since that time, many different convenience store brands have developed, and their stores may either be corporate-owned or franchises. The items offered for sale tend to be similar despite store brand, and almost always include chips, milk, coffee, soft drinks, bread, snacks, ice cream, candy, gum, cigarettes, lip balm, condoms, phone cards, maps, magazines, newspapers, small toys, car supplies, feminine hygiene products, cat food, dog food and toilet paper. Other less common items include sandwiches, pizza, and frozen food. Nearly all convenience stores also have an automated teller machine (ATM), though other banking services are usually not available. State lottery tickets are also available at these stores.

In 1966, the US convenience store industry first recorded $1 billion in sales. By the end of the decade, the industry had recorded $3.5 billion a year in sales. The first 24-hour store opened in Las Vegas in 1963. By the late 1960s, the number of 24-hour convenience stores increased to meet the needs of a younger population and people who were working late night or early morning shifts.

Some convenience stores in the US also sell gasoline. Only 2,500 stores had self-serve at the pump by 1969. It was not until the 1970s that retailers realized selling gasoline could be profitable and competitive. At the same time, two energy shortages in the decade had many service station owners stop selling fuel altogether since they made more money off of vehicle maintenance, while others decided to convert their garages into convenience stores, noting that they met a need and in some cases netted more profits than garages.

In 2011, there were approximately 47,195 gas stations with convenience stores that generated $326 billion in revenue. Of the 150,000 convenience stores in the country, 120,000 of them are located at fuel stations, which sell approximately 80 percent of the fuels purchased in the country.

Policies regarding the sale of adult magazines vary, but generally larger chains (such as 7-Eleven and Casey's General Stores) do not sell these items, while smaller independent stores may do so. One notable exception is fast-growing regional chain Sheetz, which until the late 2010s sold some soft-core pornographic material such as Playboy, Penthouse, and Playgirl. Sheetz ended this practice as part of a broader decision to end sales of all print media.

Because the laws regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages vary from state to state in the US, the availability of beer, wine, and liquor varies greatly. For example, while convenience stores in Alaska, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey cannot sell any kind of alcohol at all, stores in Nevada, New Mexico, and California may sell alcoholic beverages of any sort, while stores in Virginia, Idaho, or Oregon can sell beer and wine, but not liquor. Similar to grocery stores, convenience stores in New York can sell beer only, not wine or liquor. Altoona, Pennsylvania–based Sheetz tried to find a loophole in 2007 by classifying part of one of their prototype stores in Altoona as a restaurant, which would permit alcohol sales. State courts in Pennsylvania promptly overruled this. State law requires restaurants to have on-site consumption, but Sheetz did not do this. Sheetz continues to sell alcohol in other states. In recent years, Sheetz has begun to sell both beer (in the form of walk-in "beer caves") and wine in most of their Pennsylvania stores as well.

Crime
American convenience stores are often targets of armed robbery. In some areas of the US it is not unusual for clerks to work behind bulletproof glass windows, even during daylight hours. Some convenience stores may limit access inside at night, requiring customers to approach a walk-up window to make purchases. The main dangers are that almost all convenience stores only have one person working night shift; most of the transactions are in cash; and easily resold merchandise, such as liquor, lottery tickets and cigarettes, are on site.

Most convenience stores have a cash drop slot into a time-delay safe to limit the amount of cash on hand. Many have installed security cameras to help deter robberies and shoplifting. Because of their vulnerability to crime, nearly all convenience stores have a friendly relationship with the local police. To reduce burglaries when the store is closed, some convenience stores have bars on the windows.

Similar concepts
Convenience stores to some extent replaced the old-fashioned general store. They are similar to Australian milk bars, but unlike these are often franchises and not "Mum and Dad" small business operations. In Britain, corner shops in towns and village shops in the countryside served similar purposes and were the precursors to the modern European convenience shop (e.g. Spar). In the Canadian province of Quebec, dépanneurs (often referred to as "deps" in English) are often family-owned neighbourhood shops that serve similar purposes. Truck stops, also known as "travel centers", combine a shop offering similar goods with a convenience store with amenities for professional drivers of semi-trailer trucks. This may include fast food restaurants, showers and facilities for buying large quantities of diesel fuel. The equivalent in Europe is the motorway service station.

Neighborhood grocery stores not big enough to be considered a supermarket often compete with convenience shops. For example, in Los Angeles, a local chain operates neighborhood grocery stores that fill a niche between a traditional supermarket and convenience shop. Because they stock fresh fruit and fresh meat and carry upwards of 5,000 items, they have a lot in common with the supermarket. Due to the relatively small store size, customers can get in and out conveniently or have purchases delivered. In Belgium, convenience shops known as night shops are only permitted to open at night.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Convenience store


text:
7-Eleven

7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. After Ito-Yokado, a Japanese supermarket chain and the parent company of Seven-Eleven Japan, acquired a 70% stake in the company in 1991, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan in November 2005. The chain is owned by Japanese company Seven & I Holdings through Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd.

7-Eleven operates, franchises and licenses 84,500 stores in 19 countries and territories as of January 2024. While operating under its namesake brand globally, within the United States it operates as 7-Eleven nationally, as Speedway nationally but mostly in the Midwest and East Coast, and as Stripes Convenience Stores within the West South Central United States. Both Speedway and Stripes operate alongside 7-Eleven's namesake stores in several markets. 7-Eleven also operates A-Plus locations with the name licensed from owner and fellow Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex-based Energy Transfer Partners, though most of these stores have since been rebranded as standard 7-Eleven stores.

7-Eleven settled class action lawsuits in Australia relating to wage theft and misleading franchisees, paying around A$270 million in settlements since 2020.

Etymologies
The company's first outlets were in Dallas, named "Tote'm Stores" because customers "toted" away their purchases. Some stores featured "native" totem poles in front of the store. In 1946, the chain's name was changed from "Tote'm" to "7-11" to reflect the company's new, extended hours, 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., seven days per week. In July of 1999, the corporate name of the US company was changed from "The Southland Corporation" to "7-Eleven Inc."

Since 1968, 7-Eleven's logos have included a lowercase n. The first wife of John P. Thompson Sr., the company's president during the 1960s, thought the all-capitals version seemed a little aggressive. She suggested the change "to make the logo look more graceful".

History
In 1927, Southland Ice Company employee named John Jefferson Green began selling ice, then he started selling eggs, milk, and bread from one of 16 ice house storefronts in Dallas, with permission from one of Southland's founding directors, Joe C. Thompson Sr. Although small grocery stores and general merchandisers were available, Thompson theorized that selling products such as bread and milk in convenience stores would reduce the need for customers to travel long distances for basic items. Thompson eventually bought the Southland Ice Company and turned it into the Southland Corporation, which oversaw several locations in the Dallas area.

In 1928, a manager named Jenna Lira brought a totem pole from Alaska and placed it in front of her store. The pole served as a marketing tool for the company, as it attracted a great deal of attention. Soon, executives added totem poles in front of every store and eventually adopted an Alaska Native-inspired theme for their stores. Later on, the stores began operating under the name "Tote'm Stores". In the same year, the company began constructing filling stations in some of its Dallas locations as an experiment. Joe Thompson also provided a distinct characteristic to the company's stores, training the staff so that people would receive the same quality and service in every store. Southland also started to have a uniform for its ice station service boys. This became the major factor in the company's success as a retail convenience store.

In 1931, the Great Depression affected the company, sending it toward bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the company continued its operations through re-organization and receivership. A Dallas banker, W. W. Overton Jr., also helped to revive the company's finances by selling the company's bonds for seven cents on the dollar. This brought the company's ownership under the control of a board of directors.

In 1946, in an effort to continue the company's post-war recovery, the name of the franchise was changed to 7-Eleven to reflect the stores' new hours of operation (7 am to 11 pm), which were unprecedented at the time. In 1963, 7-Eleven experimented with a 24-hour schedule in Austin, Texas, after an Austin store stayed open all night to satisfy customer demand. Later on, 24-hour stores were established in Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1971, Southland acquired convenience stores of the former Pak-A-Sak chain owned by Graham Allen Penniman Sr. (1903–1985), of Shreveport, Louisiana.

With the purchase in 1963 of 126 Speedee Mart (all already open 7–11) franchised convenience stores in California, the company entered the franchise business. The company signed its first area licensing agreement in 1968 with Garb-Ko, Inc. of Saginaw, Michigan, which became the first U.S. domestic area 7-Eleven licensee.

In the late 1980s, Southland Corporation was threatened by a rumored corporate takeover, prompting the Thompson family to take steps to convert the company into a private model by buying out public shareholders in a tender offer. In December 1987, John Philp Thompson Sr., the chairman and CEO of 7-Eleven, completed a $5.2 billion management buyout of the company. The buyout suffered from the effects of the 1987 stock market crash and after failing initially to raise high yield debt financing, the company was required to offer a portion of stock as an inducement to invest in the company's bonds.

Various assets, such as the Chief Auto Parts chain, the ice division, and hundreds of store locations, were sold between 1987 and 1990 to relieve debt incurred during the buyout. This downsizing also resulted in numerous metropolitan areas losing 7-Eleven stores to rival convenience store operators. In October 1990, the heavily indebted Southland Corp. filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to transfer control of 70% of the company to Japanese affiliate Ito-Yokado.

Southland exited bankruptcy in March 1991, after a cash infusion of $430 million from Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan. These two Japanese entities now controlled 70% of the company, with the founding Thompson family retaining 5 percent. In 1999, Southland Corp. changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc., citing the divestment of operations other than 7-Eleven. In 2005, Seven-Eleven Japan made a tender offer and 7-Eleven, Inc. became its wholly owned subsidiary. In 2007, Seven & i Holdings announced that it would be expanding its U.S. operations, with an additional 1,000 7-Eleven stores in the U.S.

For the 2010 rankings, 7-Eleven climbed to the No. 3 spot in Entrepreneur magazine's 31st Annual Franchise 500, "the first and most comprehensive ranking in the world". This was the 17th year 7-Eleven was named in the top 10.

Also in 2010, the first "green" 7-Eleven store opened in DeLand, Florida. The store features U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) elements. Also, the environmentally friendly design brings the store savings in energy costs. That same year, 7-Eleven went mobile with the launch of the Slurpee drink's iPhone and Android Application (App). The Slurpee drink app made it easy to find 7-Eleven stores and provides driving directions. The following year, 7-Eleven celebrated its 40,000th store opening and within two years of that milestone opened its 60,000th store.

In 2020, 7-Eleven announced it would purchase Speedway for $21 billion.

In 2021, 7-Eleven rolled out a $70 million ad campaign, their largest investment in advertising in years, doubling their market spending from the previous year. The commercials, directed by Harmony Korine, are to reflect the "evolution" of the chain's store format, drawing attention to, in part, the fact that "this isn't just gas station food, there's real restaurant quality food at 7-Eleven", according to CMO Marissa Jarrantt.

Products and services
7-Eleven in the United States sells Slurpee drinks, a partially frozen soft drink introduced in 1965 (Oklahoma's stores sold these as Icy Drink until 2020 ), and Big Gulp beverages, introduced in 1976. Other products include: 7-Select private-brand products, coffee, fresh-made daily sandwiches, fresh fruit, salads, bakery items, hot and prepared foods, gasoline, dairy products, carbonated beverages and energy drinks, juices, donuts, financial services, and product delivery services.

7-Eleven is known for its relatively large drink sizes and 24-hour accessibility. 7-Eleven offers beverages in sizes as large as 128 ounces (3785 mL) (Team Gulp). These beverage sizes were all among the largest sold soft drinks when they were introduced. 7-Eleven has often been associated with these large sodas in popular culture. For example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on large sodas in New York City was frequently referred to as the 'Big Gulp ban' (even though the ban would not apply to 7-Eleven as convenience and grocery stores in New York are regulated by the state).

In 2012, 7-Eleven changed the size of the Double Gulp from 64 ounces to 50 ounces (1478 mL). The older style cups were too wide at the base, and did not fit vehicle beverage holders. This was not a reaction to the aforementioned large soda ban proposal, according to a spokesperson. In February 2020, they opened a cashier-less location at the 7-Eleven headquarters in Irving, Texas.

Cambodia
On August 30, 2021, 7-Eleven and Thailand's CP Group opened the first 7-Eleven store in Phnom Penh's Chroy Changvar district. The company hinted at plans to open at least six more stores in Phnom Penh in 2021. According to plans, products from local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sold in 7-Eleven in Cambodia will comprise at least 50 percent of the stock.

China
7-Eleven opened its first store in China in Shenzhen, Guangdong in 1992 and later expanded to Beijing in 2004, Tianjin and Shanghai in 2009, Chengdu in 2011, Qingdao in 2012, Chongqing in 2013, Hangzhou and Ningbo in 2017, Nanjing in 2018, and Wuhan, Xi'an, and Fuzhou in 2019. In China's 7-Eleven stores where Slurpees are offered, the Chinese name 思乐冰 (sīlèbīng) is used. They also offer a wide array of warm food, including traditional items like steamed buns, and stores in Chengdu offer a full variety of onigiri (饭团). Beverages, alcohol, candy, periodicals, and other convenience items are available as well. The majority of these stores are open for 24 hours a day. As of September 2021, 7-Eleven has 2,582 stores in Mainland China.

Hong Kong
7-Eleven first opened in Hong Kong in 1981, when it was a British colony. , it operates as a subsidiary of the DFI Retail Group (formerly Dairy Farm International). It is popularly called cat¹-zai² (, meaning "little seven") or cat¹-sap⁶-jat¹ (, meaning "seven eleven"). As of 2012, 7-Eleven had 964 stores in Hong Kong, of which 563 were operated by franchisees. Hong Kong reportedly has the second-highest density of 7-Eleven stores, after Macao. All 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong accept the ubiquitous Octopus card as a method of payment. They also accept payments for utility bills and public housing rent.

In November 1980, Southland Corporation and Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson signed a franchise agreement to bring 7-Eleven to the territory. The first 7-Eleven shop opened in Happy Valley on April 3, 1981. The chain expanded aggressively across Hong Kong throughout the 1980s. The 50th store opened in Kwai Chung on October 6, 1983, while the 200th was inaugurated by Simon Keswick at Tai Po Centre on May 7, 1987. The stores were sold to Dairy Farm, part of the Jardine Matheson group, in 1989.

Octopus card readers were introduced in all 7-Eleven stores in July 1999, although at first these could only be used to add value to the card. In September 2004, the number of locations in Hong Kong was substantially boosted when Dairy Farm acquired Daily Stop, a rival convenience store chain, from SCMP Retailing (HK). The chain's 84 shops, located mainly in MTR and Kowloon–Canton Railway stations (as well as shopping centers and housing estates), were converted to 7-Eleven stores.

In 2009, a 7-Eleven location in Quarry Bay opened with a hot food counter, called "7 Café", selling traditional Hong Kong street food and milk tea. This feature was subsequently extended to select other 7-Eleven locations across Hong Kong under the "Daily Café" and "Hot Shot" brands.

India
On 7 October 2021, Reliance Retail announced its partnership with 7-Eleven to open its stores in India. The announcement came a day after Future Group, another retail conglomerate, announced the end of its partnership with 7-Eleven, citing the inability to meet the target of opening stores and payment of franchisee fees. The first 7-Eleven in India opened in Mumbai on 9 October 2021 at Blue Fortuna, Military Road, Marol, Andheri East. Initially opened as a 24 hours outlet it was soon curtailed to shut its doors at 12:00am.

Indonesia
In 2008, 7-Eleven announced plans to expand its business in Indonesia through a master franchise agreement with Modern Sevel Indonesia. Modern Sevel Indonesia's initial plans were to focus on opening stores in Jakarta, targeting densely populated commercial and business areas. There were 190 7-Eleven stores in Indonesia which then reduced to only 166 stores in September 2016.

7-Eleven then closed its doors in Indonesia in 2017, citing low sales.

Israel
In October 2021, it was announced across Israeli media that 7-Eleven had signed a contract with Electra Consumer Products to open hundreds of stores in Israel. The first Israeli 7-Eleven location opened in January 2023 at Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Center. Under the agreement with 7-Eleven, Electra will open a further approximately 400 branded stores in Israel, 300 of them through franchisees.

Japan

Japan has more 7-Eleven locations than anywhere else in the world, where they often bear the name of its holding company Seven & I Holdings—in fact, Seven & I's subsidiary Seven-Eleven Japan, the master franchisee for Japan, is the direct parent company of 7-Eleven, Inc. Of the 71,000 stores around the globe, 21,215 stores (nearly 30% of global stores) are in Japan, with 2,824 stores in Tokyo alone. On September 1, 2005, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., a new holding company, became the parent company of 7-Eleven, Ito-Yokado, and Denny's Japan.

, 7-Eleven has stores in all 47 prefectures of Japan with the opening of 14 new locations in Okinawa Prefecture.

The aesthetics of the store are somewhat different from that of 7-Eleven stores in other countries as the stores offer a wider selection of products and services. 7-Eleven stores in Japan are also popular among tourists from other countries, as the Seven Bank automated teller machines at branches will accept foreign debit and credit cards for withdrawing cash in Japanese yen.

Following the example of other convenience stores in Japan, 7-Eleven has solar panels and LEDs installed in about 1,400 of its stores.

In July 2019, 7-Eleven launched then almost immediately suspended a mobile payment service, 7pay. The service was hacked upon launch, and attackers were able to spend money from affected customers' accounts.

Laos
On August 31, 2020, 7-Eleven and Thailand's CP Group announced a 30-year master franchise agreement. The first Laotian 7-Eleven was expected to open in the country's capital, Vientiane, in 2022. It officially opened on September 7, 2023 at Souphanouvong Road, Nongpanai Village, Sikhottabong district in Vientiane.

Macau
7-Eleven entered the Macau market in 2005 under the ownership of Dairy Farm, the same conglomeration group operating Hong Kong's 7-Eleven. With only 25.9 sqm, Macau has 45 stores, making it the single market with the highest density of 7-Eleven stores, containing one store per 0.65 sqm.

Malaysia
Malaysian 7-Eleven stores are owned by 7-Eleven Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., which operates 3,225 stores nationwide. 7-Eleven in Malaysia was incorporated on June 4, 1984, by the Antah holding, The first 7-Eleven store was opened in October 1984, in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.

Philippines
In the Philippines, 7-Eleven was run by the Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC). Its first store, located at the corner of EDSA and Kamias Road in Quezon City, opened on February 29, 1984.

In July 28, 1988, PSC transferred the Philippine area license to operate 7-Eleven stores to its affiliate, Phil-Seven Properties Corporation (“PSPC”), together with some of its store properties. In exchange thereof, PSC received 47% of PSPC stock as payment.

On May 2, 1996, the stockholders of both PSC and PSPC approved the merger of the two companies to advance PSC group's expansion. On October 30, 1996, Securities and Exchange Commission approved the merger and PSPC was then absorbed by PSC as the surviving entity. In 2000, President Chain Store Corporation (PCSC) of Taiwan, also a licensee of 7-Eleven, purchased the majority shares of PSC and thus formed a strategic alliance for the convenience store industry within the area.

In February 2009, 7-Eleven has signed a non-exclusive contract with Chevron Philippines to open its stores in selected Caltex gas stations nationwide.

In 2012, they opened their first store outside of Luzon in Cebu City, which soon expanded to the other parts of Cebu as well as its neighboring provinces. It was followed with the branch openings in Bacolod City in 2013, Iloilo City in 2014, Davao City in 2015, and Cagayan de Oro in 2016. The number of stores eventually spread from these major cities to smaller towns and provinces near them.

In February 2020, 7-Eleven and GCash, the mobile wallet of Alipay and Globe, have teamed up for the introduction of a new payment option for physical purchases: scan-to-pay (STP) via a barcode feature in the GCash app. This enables the customers to generate their unique barcodes through the GCash app and allow the cashier to scan their barcodes to complete the transaction.

In 2020, due to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC) slashed the store openings to 200 from the original 400 stores planned to be open due to financial difficulties from the growing pandemic situation. On July 11, 2021, coinciding with the 94th founding anniversary of the convenience store chain, 7-Eleven Philippines opened its 3,000th store in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

In 2023, PSC CEO Jose Victor Paterno's expansion from a P3.5 billion expenditure added 375 new stores. In 2024, Paterno invested P4.5 billion to open 450 new outlets, with 3,940 total stores, expanding in Visayas and Mindanao.

Singapore
In Singapore, 7-Eleven forms the largest chain of convenience stores island-wide. There are 393 7-Eleven stores in the country as of February 2018. Stores in Singapore are operated by DFI Retail Group (formerly Dairy Farm International Holdings), franchised under a licensing agreement with 7-Eleven Incorporated. The first 7-Eleven store in Singapore was opened along Upper Changi Road in 1983, and in 1986 the first franchised 7-Eleven store (under the Jardine Matheson Group) was opened. The license was then acquired by Cold Storage Singapore, a subsidiary of the Dairy Farm Group, in 1989.

In 2006, Shell Singapore and 7-Eleven agreed to rebrand all 68 of its Shell Select convenience stores into 7-Eleven. The partnership was terminated in October 2017, and the remaining 52 7-Eleven stores in Shell petrol stations were gradually rebranded back into Shell Select.

South Korea

7-Eleven has a major presence in the Republic of Korea convenience store market, where it competes with CU, GS25 (formerly LG25), and independent competitors. There are 11,067 7-Eleven stores in the Republic of Korea; with only Japan and Thailand hosting more stores. The first 7-Eleven store in the Republic of Korea opened in 1989 in Songpa-gu in Seoul with a franchise license under the Lotte Group. In January 2010, Lotte Group acquired the Buy the Way convenience store chain and rebranded its 1,000 stores under the 7-Eleven brand.

In 2021, 7-Eleven announced that it would be working with a South Korean nonprofit to create jobs and franchising opportunities for North Korean defectors in South Korea.

In January 2022, Lotte acquired the entire stake of Ministop Korea Co. for 313.37 billion won ($263 million). After acquisition, all the Ministop store were gradually converted to 7-Eleven.

Taiwan

7-Eleven is the largest convenience store chain In Taiwan, and is owned by President Chain Store Corporation, a subsidiary of Uni-President Enterprises Corporation. The first fourteen stores opened in 1979, and struggled to make a profit. Southland Corporation partnered with Uni-President to modernize the stores. However, business was still slow, and Uni-President opted to stock Asian foods. In 1986, 7-Eleven made its first profit in Taiwan. The 5,000th store was opened in July 2014. In January 2018, an experimental and unstaffed shop branded the X-Store was opened. 7-Eleven announced plans to operate a combination store in partnership with Domino's Pizza in February 2019.

In the early 2000s, 7-Eleven and Dentsu introduced a corporate mascot named Open-Chan (Open 小將), an extraterrestrial dog who wears a rainbow-shaped crown from a fictional planet known as Planet Open to be a "cartoon spokesperson" for the store chain in Taiwan. Open-Chan quickly grew in popularity among Taiwanese children soon after its initial debut. After Open-Chan's subsequent rise to prominence in Taiwan, the character was even introduced in Japan. The unique convenience store culture formed by President Chain Store (7-Eleven in Taiwan) has become a part of Taiwanese culture.

7-Eleven Taiwan also operates an MVNO called ibon mobile which offers prepaid and postpaid SIM cards using the FarEasTone network.

Thailand
The first Thai 7-Eleven opened in 1989 on Patpong Road in Bangkok. The chain consists of both company-owned (45%) and franchised shops (55%). CP All Public Company Limited, a listed subsidiary of the Charoen Pokphand Group Company, is the 7-Eleven owner and franchisor in Thailand; CP received the franchise rights for Thailand in 1988. As of 2022, CP All has a total of 13,838 stores in Thailand, an increase from 12,432 in 2020. In 2018, 7-Eleven generated 335,532 million baht in income for CP. 7-Eleven holds a 70% market share in the convenience store category, opposed by some 7,000 other convenience stores (e.g., FamilyMart) and 400,000 "mom and pop" shops. Thailand has the second largest number of 7-Eleven stores after Japan.

In an effort to reduce plastic pollution the parent company of 7-Eleven stores in Thailand, CP All Public Company, announced their intent in November 2018 to reduce and eventually end the use of single-use plastic bags. , 7-Eleven—along with 42 other Thai retailers—will stop giving single-use plastic bags to customers. However, the use of plastic bags is still prevalent in many shops throughout the country.

United Arab Emirates
Seven & I Holdings announced in June 2014 that they had agreed a contract with Seven Emirates Investment LLC to open the first Middle Eastern 7-Eleven in Dubai, United Arab Emirates during the summer of 2015. The company also said that they had plans to open about 100 stores in the country by the end of 2017. The first store was opened in October 2015. The country has 13 stores as of January 2018.

Vietnam
The first 7-Eleven store in Vietnam opened in 2017, making Vietnam the 17th country to host the world's largest convenience store chain. Seven System Vietnam (SSV) is the Master Franchisee of the 7-Eleven convenience store system in Vietnam, based in Ho Chi Minh City.

Australia
The first 7-Eleven in Australia opened on 24 August 1977, in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh. The majority of stores are located in metropolitan areas, particularly in central business district areas. Stores in suburban areas often operate as petrol stations and most are owned and operated as franchises, with a central administration. 7-Eleven bought Mobil's remaining Australian petrol stations in 2010, converting them to 7-Eleven outlets, resulting in an immediate and unprecedented overnight major expansion of the brand. In South Australia all Mobil petrol stations were sold to Peregrine Corporation and branded as OTR petrol stations.

7-Eleven stores in Australia sell a wide range of items, including daily newspapers, drinks, confectionery, and snack foods. They sell gift cards, including three types of pre-paid Visa cards. The chain has partnered with Bankwest, placing an ATM in each of their stores nationwide. Each year on 7 November, 7-Eleven promotes "7-Eleven Day". In previous years, this was celebrated by giving away a free Slurpee to customers. In 2023, the offer was updated to offer a free regular coffee or large slurpee with any other purchase.

In April 2014, 7-Eleven announced plans to start operating stores in Western Australia, with 11 stores planned to operate within the first year and a total of 75 stores established within five years. The first store was opened on October 30, 2014, in the city of Fremantle. The country has 675 stores as of January 2018.

In April 2022, 7-Eleven Australia settled a class-action lawsuit from its franchisees for A$98 million, amid claims that it had misled franchisees about the profitability of its business model.

In December 2023, Seven & i Holdings of Japan agreed to purchase the Australian 7-Eleven franchise from its original franchise owners for A$1.71 billion.

Class actions
In August 2015, Fairfax Media and the ABC's Four Corners programme reported on the employment practices of certain 7-Eleven franchisees in Australia. The investigation found that many 7-Eleven employees were being underpaid at rates of around A$10 to A$14 per hour before tax, well under the legally-required minimum award rate of A$24.69 per hour. The Four Corners investigation into 7-Eleven won a Walkley Award in 2015.

Franchisees underpaying their staff would typically maintain rosters and pay records that appeared to show the employee being paid the legally-required rate; however, these records only included half of the hours the employee actually worked in a week. Employees were then paid on the basis of these records, resulting in them effectively being paid half the legally-required rate. It was also reported that workers were often not paid loadings and penalty rates that they are legally entitled to, for working overtime hours, nights, weekends, and public holidays.

After these reports came to light and received widespread attention, some employees had alleged to Fairfax Media that they had begun to be paid correctly through the 7-Eleven payroll system; however, they were then asked by the franchisee to pay back half their wages in cash. 7-Eleven subsequently announced they would fund an inquiry to investigate instances of wage fraud. The inquiry was conducted by an independent panel chaired by former Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels, and with the support of professional services firm Deloitte. The inquiry invited submissions from current and former 7-Eleven employees who allege they have been underpaid, and assess each individual claim.

In September 2015, chairman Russ Withers and chief executive Warren Wilmot announced they were resigning from the company. Deputy chairman Michael Smith replaced Withers, while Bob Baily was appointed as interim chief executive.

In December 2015, Stewart Levitt of law firm Levitt Robinson Solicitors, who featured prominently in the Four Corners program, announced a potential class action lawsuit against 7-Eleven head office on behalf of franchisees who had allegedly been lured into signing on with 7-Eleven by false representations. This announcement was made on the same day as a Court finding describing Levvit Robinson's "hellish bullying" of Dr Brendan French, miring the action in controversy. Also on that day, 7-Eleven offered to pay "the first $25 million of back-pay claims brought by current and former workers. Franchisees would then pay the next $5 million and any payments after that would be split 50-50 between head office and franchisees." Fels "described the $25 million offer from head office as a 'significant step forward'" but added that his panel's investigation would not be effected. 7-Eleven ultimately paid more than $173 million for "systematic wage theft" to workers employed between 2015 and 2020.

Levvit Robinson was forced to retract misleading statements made in advertising to 7-Eleven franchisees in June 2018 by the Federal Court of Australia. This occurred only months after Levvit Robinson launched a new class action against 7-Eleven that included the ANZ Bank despite banks having stopped loans to 7-Eleven franchisees in 2015. In a settlement approved by the Federal Court in 2022, 7-Eleven agreed to pay $98 million to franchisees alleging that they were misled regarding store profitability. Though the settlement was reached without any admission of fault, the case included allegations that 7-Eleven had misrepresented employee-related costs as about seven percent of total costs, when a more accurate figure was around thirteen percent. This difference made many franchisees "unable to make a profit unless they underpaid staff," as was shown in the wage theft class action.

Denmark
The first 7-Eleven store in Denmark was opened at Østerbro in Copenhagen on September 14, 1993. There are 185 stores, mostly in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense, including two stores at Copenhagen Central Station. In Denmark, 7-Eleven has an agreement with Shell, with a nationwide network of Shell/7-Eleven service stations, and an agreement with the Danish railway company DSB to have 7-Eleven stores at most S-train stations and other train stations.

In 2022 7-Eleven in Denmark suffered a widespread ransomware attack that caused all stores to temporarily close. 7-Eleven did not comply with the attacker's demands. No customer data was compromised in the attack.

Norway
7-Eleven has been established in Norway since 13 September 1986, when the first store opened in Oslo. In 2004, Reitan Convenience, a branch of the Norwegian Reitan Group bought the rights to use the 7-Eleven brand in Norway, Sweden and Denmark and since then has massively grown the number of operating shops in Scandinavia.

Sweden
7-Eleven entered Sweden in March 1984 with their first branch in Stockholm. Reitan acquired the brands right after 1997, and now has almost 200 stores throughout Sweden.

United Kingdom
During the 1980s, 7-Eleven convenience stores were based in London and the South East of England. The first shop opened in Sydenham, South East London in 1985. The United Kingdom had 57 7-Eleven stores when it was sold to Budgens in October 1997. The company announced in 2014 they had planned to return to the UK market, but this did not progress beyond its announcement. In 2019, the company announced again it had planned to return, but as of October 2022 no stores had been opened.

Canada
The first 7-Eleven store to open in Canada was in Calgary, Alberta, on June 29, 1969. There are 562 7-Eleven stores in Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba, has the world's largest number of Slurpee consumers, with an estimated 1,500,000 Slurpees sold since the first 7-Eleven opened on March 21, 1970. All 7-Eleven locations in Canada are corporate operated. Like its U.S. counterparts every July 11 the stores offer free Slurpees on "7-Eleven Day".

A limited number of 7-Eleven locations feature gas stations from Shell Canada, Petro-Canada, or Esso. In November 2005, 7-Eleven started offering the Speak Out Wireless cellphone service in Canada. 7-Eleven locations also featured CIBC ATMsin June 2012, these machines were replaced with ATMs operated by Scotiabank. 7-Eleven abandoned the Ottawa, Ontario, market in December 2009 after selling its six outlets to Quickie Convenience Stores, a regional chain. Following concerns over the fate of 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless customers, Quickie offered the option for SpeakOut customers to port into the Good2Go mobile provider. SpeakOut subsequently offered online sales as an option, and continues to offer Ottawa-based phone numbers to new and existing customers. 7-Eleven is similarly absent from the Quebec market due to its saturation by chains like Alimentation Couche-Tard and Boni-soir, and by independent dépanneurs.

In March 2016, 7-Eleven acquired 148 Imperial Oil-owned Esso gas stations in Alberta and British Columbia for C$2.8 billion. Most of their convenience stores were converted to 7-Eleven stores, and they remain supplied by Esso. Some locations were not converted to 7-Eleven; these locations operate under the transitional banner "smartstop 24/7" with their existing store formats, typically inherited from the previous On the Run chain.

Mexico
In Mexico, the first 7-Eleven store opened in 1976 in Monterrey in association with Grupo Chapa (now Iconn) and 7-Eleven, Inc. under the name Super 7. In 1995, Super 7 was renamed to 7-Eleven, which now has 1,835 stores in several areas of the country, making it the second-largest convenience store chain in the country, between Oxxo and Circle K. When stores are located within classically designed buildings (such as in Centro Histórico buildings) or important landmarks, the storefront logo is displayed in monochrome with gold or silver lettering.

United States
Supermarket News ranked 7-Eleven's North American operations No. 11 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers", based on the 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of US$15.0 billion. Based on the 2005 revenue, 7-Eleven is the 24th largest retailer in the United States. , 8,144 7-Eleven franchised units exist across the United States. Franchise fees range between US$10,000 – $1,000,000 and the ongoing royalty rate varies. 7-Eleven America has its headquarters in the Cypress Waters development in Irving, Texas. Small-size Slurpees are free on "7-Eleven Day", on July 11. This holiday first became widely celebrated on July 11, 2008, when first discovered by J. Brabank and C. Johnson. One exception is 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused that year's cancellation. 7 Rewards members got a free medium Slurpee in their app instead.

7-Eleven Stores of Oklahoma operated independently beginning in 1953 under an agreement with the Brown family. As part of this franchise agreement, 7-Elevens in Oklahoma bore slight differences to stores elsewhere: for instance, products such as Big Bite hot dogs were not sold there, the Slurpee was branded as the "Icy Drink", and Oklahoma stores operated their own loyalty program called "Thx!", which did not intersect with the national 7Rewards system. On March 2, 2020, 7-Eleven, Inc. announced it had officially closed on the acquisition of over 100 of these independently operated 7-Eleven stores in Oklahoma. All of these 100 stores were in the greater Oklahoma City metropolitan area. This acquisition increased the total number of 7-Eleven stores in the US and Canada to nearly 9800. Following the purchase, the Oklahoma 7-Elevens were fully integrated into national branding, marketing, and loyalty campaigns.

In April 2021, 7-Eleven launched the "Take it to Eleven" ad campaign. The slogan was partially inspired by the chain's name, but also the term "up to eleven" made popular in the film This is Spinal Tap. The slogan was only for the main 7-Eleven brand and not A-Plus or Stripes.

By summer 2021, the company had installed just a few electric vehicle charging stations, but announced plans to expand considerably, with a target of 250 DC fast-charging locations in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2022, starting with four states (California, Colorado, Florida and Texas). Less than two years later, in mid-March 2023, 7-Eleven announced plans for 7Charge, "its new, proprietary EV charging network and app", promoting the Android and iOS mobile apps, which allow users to find 7-Eleven - and future Speedway and Stripes - charger locations and pay for charging. 7Charge locations offer CCS and CHAdeMO charging; Tesla drivers, and other vehicles using the (once-proprietary) NACS connector, can also charge, but require a user-supplied CCS adapter.

In August 2022, 7-Eleven acquired Skipcart, a same-day and on-demand delivery platform.

Fuel
In the U.S., many 7-Eleven locations used to have filling stations with gasoline distributed by Citgo, which in 1983 was purchased by Southland Corporation. 50% of Citgo was sold in 1986 to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., and the remaining 50% was acquired in 1990. Although Citgo was the predominant partner of 7-Eleven, other oil companies are also co-branded with 7-Eleven, including Fina, Exxon, Mobil, Gulf, Marathon, BP, Phillips 66, Conoco, 76, Shell, Chevron (some former TETCO convenience stores were co-branded with Chevron, and Texaco prior to the 7-Eleven purchase in late 2012), Sunoco, and Amoco. Conoco is the largest 7-Eleven licensee in North America. The Pittsburgh market alone—where 7-Eleven is the market leader by store count but third behind Sheetz and GetGo in revenue—7-Eleven currently offers fuel from Exxon, Gulf, Marathon (both legacy 7-Eleven locations and Speedway), BP, and Sunoco (the latter two being from 7-Eleven's acquisitions of their company-owned-and-operated locations in the area) and also having previously offered Citgo and Pennzoil at some locations. In more recent years, some 7-Eleven locations sell 7-Eleven branded fuel without a Big Oil brand, much like 7-Eleven's primary rival Circle K has done in recent years.

7-Eleven signed an agreement with Exxon-Mobil in December 2010 for the acquisition of 183 sites in Florida. This was followed by the acquisition of 51 ExxonMobil sites in North Texas in August 2011.

Regardless of fuel brand, 7-Eleven has its own fleet network, 7 Fleet, for business customers and truck drivers at locations large enough to feature dedicated fueling lanes for semi trucks, though 7 Fleet can also be used at standard 7-Eleven locations as well. It is mostly designed to compete with Pilot Flying J's One9 Network designed for owner-operator drivers, as well as drivers that go to standard Pilot Flying J, Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, and TravelCenters of America locations.

On August 2, 2020, Seven & i Holdings announced to buy Speedway LLC for $21 billion. The deal closed on May 14, 2021. 7-Eleven was ordered by U.S. antitrust regulators to divest 293 stores across 20 states. 124 stores were sold to Anabi Oil, 106 stores were sold to Cross-America Partners LP and 63 stores were sold to Jacksons Food Stores. 7-Eleven also dropped Speedway's participation in Pilot Flying J's One9 Network in favor of 7 Fleet.

Brazil
In Brazil, during the 1990s, 7-Eleven had 17 stores in the city of São Paulo in a joint venture between Esteve S.A. Exportadora and Southland Corporation, but all closed due to high competition. In 2018, the company entered into partnership talks to operate convenience stores at gas stations operated by Petrobras Distribuidora in the country, but this did not progress beyond.

title: 7-Eleven