OKLAHOMA CITY – Independent convenience-store chain 7-Eleven Stores of Oklahoma is rolling out new, larger stores. The first of the company’s new 7-Eleven-branded locations opened in mid-July in Oklahoma City, reported The Oklahoman.
The new store has softer lighting, patio seating and an expanded selection of coffee, Icy Drinks (its version of the Slurpee) and frozen yogurt.
The store is also the first of the company's stores with a kitchen, said the report. The new format store has more breakfast items, as well as menu items like pizza and chicken bites.
"We don't have everything made-to order yet, but that's the direction the market is going," Jim Brown, CEO and president of 7-Eleven Stores of Oklahoma, told the newspaper.
The new 7-Eleven stores will also sell diesel fuel, something 7-Eleven does not carry at its other stores.
7-Eleven Stores of Oklahoma has three additional new format-stores under construction in Oklahoma City. It plans to roll about as many as 15 of the expanded convenience stores in that market. Some of the new stores will replace existing locations and others will be an expansion for the brand, the report said.
The new-format stores are the product of a few years of planning and extensive market research, Brown said.
"It has been a process of finding out about what our customers like about us and building on that," he said.
The first store is a prototype, and the company is still in the process of fine-tuning the concept, Brown said.
"The opening of the first store is only the beginning, not the end," he said.
The 111 stores owned and operated by 7-Eleven Stores of Oklahoma are the only independently owned stores that carry the 7-Eleven brand, through a special arrangement made in 1953 between owner William Brown and Dallas-based 7-Eleven (then Southland Corp.). The Oklahoma stores are neither licensees nor franchisees of the national chain, but are totally independent, according to online convenience-store directory CSPedia.
Click here to view an Oklahoman slideshow featuring the new store design.
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