7-Eleven to build 500 ‘food-forward’ stores between 2025 and 2027

7-Eleven has big plans for its new store format.

The convenience store giant said it plans to build 500 convenience stores between 2025 and 2027, according to an investor presentation posted on its website by parent company Seven & i Holdings. The locations will feature a new prototype that 7-Eleven has billed internally as its “New Standard" stores.

The new builds will incorporate learnings from the chain’s “Evolution” store format, which it debuted in March 2019 in Dallas, and subsequently expanded to other locations. The stores will be larger and “food forward,” according to the presentation, and feature digital innovations, frictionless shopping and fuel.

“We plan to open 125 of these new stores in 2025, and we are ramping up and growing our pipeline with plans to open over 500 of these new stores by 2027,” 7-Eleven CEO Joe DePinto said on the call with investors. He emphasized that the company is focusing on food in its growth strategy going forward.  

DePinto told investors that the new stores will offer a larger product assortment and expanded food and beverage offerings and also be more contemporary. They will also offer in-store seating and electric vehicle charging stations.

Earlier this month, 7-Eleven said it would close 444 underperforming stores in North America. In a filing, the company cited consumers pulling back on purchases due to inflation and continuing declines in cigarette sales as negatively impacting sales.

According to the presentation, the new store standard locations are outperforming 7-Eleven’s store network, with 13% higher same-store sales in the first year of opening.

“We’re projecting that at full maturity, four years, that these new standard-store sales will further increase by 30% to $8,219 average per store day,”  DePinto said.

DePinto also said that 7-Eleven will continue to expand its proprietary products program and has invested in its food and beverage modernization program.

“It expands our assortment of hot food, which our customers seek, with grab-and-go cases, specialty beverages, self-serve roller grills and bake in-store food offerings,” he said.

7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 83,000 convenience stores in 19 countries and regions, including approximately 13,229 locations in the United States and Canada.

This article was originally published on sister site Chain Store Age.