7-Eleven Houston and Dallas: Two completely different stores

[storewanderer]

7-Eleven in Houston and Dallas is very interesting. 7-Eleven in Dallas seems to be the same trash chain I am used to on the west coast with completely inconsistent stores, dirty, understaffed with only one cashier, etc. Some of them have better curb appeal due to having branded fuel but once you get inside that is where it seems to stop. These sites wanted 1.39+ for cold drink refills. The drink bars were such a disaster at a couple locations I went to I wouldn't have bought anything from them anyway based on cleanliness concerns. They have an app promotion for .89 new cup 30oz cold drink so basically a refill trying to not keep wasting cups is pointless.

7-Eleven in Houston on the other hand seems to be a completely different chain. I guess even though these say 7-Eleven they are still more like Stripes than 7-Eleven. Most sites have a food counter with Laredo Taco and this counter is staffed by 3-4 employees. Also I always saw at least 2 employees working cashier too so checkout time was minimal. The beverage stations are maintained and clean, time stamps are on items that should have time stamps, and fresh food items are stocked neatly and areas look clean. Items were clearly dated. For drink refills they had 0.79 drink refills up to 52oz which makes sense given the 0.89 new cup promotion. I couldn't get 7 Rewards to scan at any of these locations for some reason which was odd.

They do not use the same cash register as a typical 7-Eleven either. If they handle Speedway this way too and operate it more like Speedway they may have a shot at some success.

[wnetmacman]

7-Eleven in Houston and Dallas is very interesting. 7-Eleven in Dallas seems to be the same trash chain I am used to on the west coast with completely inconsistent stores, dirty, understaffed with only one cashier, etc. Some of them have better curb appeal due to having branded fuel but once you get inside that is where it seems to stop. These sites wanted 1.39+ for cold drink refills. The drink bars were such a disaster at a couple locations I went to I wouldn't have bought anything from them anyway based on cleanliness concerns. They have an app promotion for .89 new cup 30oz cold drink so basically a refill trying to not keep wasting cups is pointless.

7-Eleven in Houston on the other hand seems to be a completely different chain. I guess even though these say 7-Eleven they are still more like Stripes than 7-Eleven. Most sites have a food counter with Laredo Taco and this counter is staffed by 3-4 employees. Also I always saw at least 2 employees working cashier too so checkout time was minimal. The beverage stations are maintained and clean, time stamps are on items that should have time stamps, and fresh food items are stocked neatly and areas look clean. Items were clearly dated. For drink refills they had 0.79 drink refills up to 52oz which makes sense given the 0.89 new cup promotion. I couldn't get 7 Rewards to scan at any of these locations for some reason which was odd.

They do not use the same cash register as a typical 7-Eleven either. If they handle Speedway this way too and operate it more like Speedway they may have a shot at some success.

I don't know about Houston, but Stripes has three Louisiana stores: one in Lake Charles and two in Lafayette. The LC store does a decent business because it's in a great location on Gerstener Memorial Dr. near a large commercial area. Because there are few stations nearby, it stays busy. I do not know if its Laredo Taco is still running, however. The two in Lafayette must have been purchased by Stripes' real estate person's 4th grader. One only gets outbound traffic leaving town. It's regularly a ghost town. The other is in a location where you just do not leave the road. Neither have Laredo Taco any longer. They are dirty, even though they are newer stores. They have newer 7-Eleven POS systems and 7-Eleven items such as the Big Gulp and Slurpees, plus branded items. I generally do not stop at them; Murphy and RaceTrac have better gas and cheaper pricing.