In 1909 a farm boy got a job shoveling animal poop at a local ice shop. Back then ice boxes needed ice delivered, and somebody needed to clean up after the animals that pulled the wagons.
This boy would grow that company to have more location than Holiday Inn, Walmart, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonalds COMBINED.
The boy stuck with the company through school, and through his business degree. He was now 24 and during merger talks, he negotiated on behalf of the Ice Shop he managed. This landed him on the board of directors for the new combined company.
That's when the manager for one of the locations went to him with an idea. "We're already paying the premiums to keep the ice cold, wouldn't it be convenient to stock milk and eggs and bread? Then people wouldn't need to travel hours to the nearest market."
The boy (now man) agreed, having done something similar the year prior at one of the locations. The world's first convenience store was born, and did VERY WELL.
They took to business model and instated it at all the other locations. They threw on some marketing shticks and the success only continued to rise. When the economy was in the toilet, the man took advantage of the other owners fears and obtained full ownership of the company.
The man founds a farm to get discounts on dairy. He founds a bottling plant, ice cream production, film rental, partial ownership of shell (gasoline). Things are doing well.
Ice shops have ALWAYS been open longer than other places. In fact, they used to be seen as a public utility. That's why a marketing team decided to really punctuate their longer hours with a re-branding. They renamed the store after the hours.
That's how 7-eleven was born.
If you've ever been to Japan, you'll notice a 7-11 on nearly every block. Why?
Because the company, unfortunately, took a crazy turn when attempting to prevent a hostile takeover. They tried to go private... DURING the 1987 stock market crash. Oops. They had to sell subsidiaries and sell 70% of their business to Japanese investors.
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