7-Eleven, the world’s largest convenience store chain, is accelerating its strategy to boost food and beverage sales with a new initiative to renovate thousands of stores to make room for bigger kitchens and coolers to hold chilled food and drinks.
7-Eleven said it is planning to expand and modernize about 7,000 stores in North America by 2030. It’s an addition to a previously announced plan to open 1,300 new stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico by 2030. 7-Eleven did not provide a cost estimate for the renovation initiative and did not identify the stores slated for upgrades.
Convenience store operators are prioritizing in-store sales of prepared food items and beverages to juice sales, as they earn little revenue from the sale of gasoline and as consumers seek cheaper food and beverage options. The largest chains, including Casey’s General Stores, Kwik Trip and Sheetz, are building larger stores, expanding existing locations and improving off-site kitchens and distribution facilities to support the emphasis on food and beverage.
During the failed takeover attempt by Circle K parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard, leadership of 7-Eleven unveiled initial plans for an improved retail network. 7-Eleven is also closing underperforming stores, with 645 locations in North America set to be shuttered by March 2027.
7-Eleven announced the renovation program last week during a meeting with investors and the retailer’s parent company, Japan’s Seven & I Holdings, provided extensive details in a slideshow presentation.
The retailer will upgrade kitchen equipment and expand product offerings, including custom-ordered food and beverages and open-case chilled prepared foods, according to the presentation. 7-Eleven will also boost its inventory of private-label food and drinks; add digital kiosks for placing orders; and expand the availability of its 7NOW delivery service.
“The goal is to make 7-Eleven a primary food destination, not just a place to pick up a drink or a snack, but a place customers choose for quality and value,” Doug Rosencrans, interim co-CEO at 7-Eleven, said on April 23 during the investors’ meeting.
“By 2030, 7-Eleven will be a structurally different business, better aligned with what customers expect and delivering meaningfully stronger returns for shareholders,” Rosencrans said.
7-Eleven did not identify the architecture firms and general contractors that have been hired for the store renovation program. 7-Eleven did not respond to requests for comment.
7-Eleven has also launched a program to convert about 2,600 company-owned stores to its franchise model. It’s pursuing the shift because franchised stores have “stronger unit economics … absorb labor and cost variability … [and franchisees] bring deep knowledge of their local markets,” Rosencrans said during the presentation.
Among its 85,000 locations worldwide, 7-Eleven has thousands of franchised stores. The National Coalition of Associations of 7-Eleven Franchisees, a trade organization, did not respond to requests for comment.