7/11 celebrates 82 years

L-R: Rehana Sultan, Favia and Latifa Khan

LOS ANGELES: The 7/11 corporation celebrated its 82nd anniversary last weekend. Each franchise nationwide had its own celebration.

In the city of Riverside Franchise no 15515 at 9580 Magnolia Ave, owned by Latifa Khan did things in a different way. The focus was on kids. There was a jumper, face painting and other games. They also served over 2000 free "Slurpies" and gave gifts to customers. There was also a cheerleaders' team from a neighboring school.

Originally from Bangladesh, Latifa is amongst the few South Asian women to be in this business. She runs this with help from her Manager Rehana Sultan.

The company had its origins in 1927 in Dallas, Texas, USA, when an employee of Southland Ice Company, Joe C. Thompson, started selling milk, eggs and bread from an ice dock.

The original location was an improvised storefront at Southland Ice Company, an ice-manufacturing plant owned by John Jefferson Green. Although small grocery stores and general merchandisers were present in the immediate area, the manager of the ice plant, Joe C. Thompson, discovered that selling convenience items such as bread and milk was popular due to the ice's ability to preserve the items.

This significantly cut back on need to travel long distances to the grocery stores for basic items. Joe C. Thompson eventually bought the Southland Ice Company and turned it into the Southland Corporation which oversaw several locations which opened up in the Dallas area. Initially, these stores were open from 7 am to 11 pm, hours unprecedented in their length, hence the name. The company began to use the 7-Eleven name in 1946. By 1952, 7-Eleven opened its 100th store. It was incorporated as the The Southland Corporation in 1961.

In 1962, 7-Eleven first experimented with a 24-hour schedule in Austin, Texas. In 1963, 24-hour stores were established in Las Vegas, Fort Worth, and Dallas.

In the 1980s, the company ran into financial difficulties and was rescued from bankruptcy by Ito-Yokado, its largest franchisee. In 1987, John Philip Thompson, the CEO of 7-Eleven, completed a $5.2 billion management buyout of the company his father had founded. The buyout suffered from the 1987 stock market crash and after failing initially to raise high yield debt financing, the company was required to offer a portion of the company's stock as an inducement to invest in the company's bonds.

The Japanese company gained a controlling share of 7-Eleven in 1991, during the Japanese asset bubble of the early 1990s. Ito-Yokado formed Seven & I Holdings Co and 7-Eleven became its subsidiary in 2005. In 2007, Seven & I Holdings announced they would be expanding their American operations, with an additional 1,000 7-Eleven stores in the US.

 - JS Bedi
India Post News Service