Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Gas stations & convenience stores (AM/PM, 7-Eleven, etc.)
luckysaver
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by luckysaver »

To expand on storewanderer's quote "To be fair there are not many people selling coffee for .99 in CA... but there are others if you know where to look.":

King Taco in the LA area sells coffee for 99 Cents in a 12-oz cup. IKEA has $1 coffee at the restaurant and bistro but its free with Family Card. And some ARCO AMPM locations (and maybe some Circle K's) have a 99 Cents "coffee club" promotion. The average price for a cup of hot brewed coffee has been hovering around the $1.49-$1.99 range lately. But then at Pilot Flying J and some hospital cafeterias you can get a nice jumbo cup of hot coffee for $1.99 (for 32+ ounces).

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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by storewanderer »

luckysaver wrote: February 16th, 2022, 2:18 am To expand on storewanderer's quote "To be fair there are not many people selling coffee for .99 in CA... but there are others if you know where to look.":

King Taco in the LA area sells coffee for 99 Cents in a 12-oz cup. IKEA has $1 coffee at the restaurant and bistro but its free with Family Card. And some ARCO AMPM locations (and maybe some Circle K's) have a 99 Cents "coffee club" promotion. The average price for a cup of hot brewed coffee has been hovering around the $1.49-$1.99 range lately. But then at Pilot Flying J and some hospital cafeterias you can get a nice jumbo cup of hot coffee for $1.99 (for 32+ ounces).

luckysaver
How about McDonalds? They have held a $1 price point only for small coffee in my area. They were $1 all sizes before COVID.

Quik Stop has the .99 Cumberland Farms coffee (up to 20 oz) in my area, and I assume the few NorCal Quik Stops as well. That is a recent change. Under Kroger there were pretty constant promotions but that dried up under EG Group and pricing was escalated to the 1.49-1.79 range. Now with this Cumberland Farms they are advertising the .99 as an everyday low price. Foam cup (cheap cup cost) is provided. I guess in parts of CA they have to use a paper cup.
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by luckysaver »

In some parts of CA such as LA and SF, styrofoam food packaging (including drink cups) are banned by local ordinances citing environmental reasons, so eateries and c-stores had to switch to paper or the hybrid type cups (paper layer wrapped around foam). Remember when McDonalds had foam coffee cups in the 1990's? However, anybody can still mass purchase foam cups from Smart & Final, Amazon, or a foodservice supplier and serve drinks at private events in the very same jurisdictions that banned foam packaging.

My local IKEA in Covina CA is horrible - they have been using Solo's cold soda cups for "to-go" coffee, which is actually the wrong type of cup for a hot or even a lukewarm drink as coffee tends to leak through the seam. This is because they ran out of the IKEA branded paper coffee cups that they began using last year as part of their foodservice division's plan for environmentally sustainable and biodegradable disposable food packaging and utensils (aka fiberboard plates and wood silverware) during the COVID era.

One of the best and sturdiest hybrid coffee cups that can be re-used many times comes from Pilot Flying J (their coffee is so good it keeps you focused on your driving). The current McDonalds "McCafe" cups are also very strong for a hybrid.

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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by storewanderer »

luckysaver wrote: February 18th, 2022, 1:35 am

One of the best and sturdiest hybrid coffee cups that can be re-used many times comes from Pilot Flying J (their coffee is so good it keeps you focused on your driving). The current McDonalds "McCafe" cups are also very strong for a hybrid.

luckysaver
That Ikea is a definite health issue because the hot coffee going into those plastic Solo cups will absolutely melt some of that plastic.

Quik Stop had the thicker cups like McDonalds that you describe before moving to the Cumberland Farms foam cups. Still after one re-use I find the seal on the side of those cups would start to go... I do find however the foam cups can be reused a few times. Re-use is noticeably easier when sugar is not used.
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by storewanderer »

I see there is a new construction Speedway in Riverside, 690 Van Buren. It opened May 2021. Probably right as 7-Eleven completed the purchase of the chain.
So that is two new build Speedways in CA- the other is in Irvine (took some old Mobil station).
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: January 12th, 2022, 12:26 am Yes, this is how they are set up.
http://www.wegotcoffee.com/wp-content/u ... allery.jpg

That looks about like the current pricing too (WAY too high).

They have a couple locations in my area they remodeled somewhat recently. I will have to see if they made any changes.
I have never had good coffee that came from one of those things, no matter the setting. I guess if it was totally fresh...AND if the person making it did it correctly...but that rarely happens. What good is a convenience store if the coffee is dubious like that?

I moved recently and the 7-Eleven store mix is modern but a franken-chain made up of various acquisitions. So now, 7-Eleven, which pre-acquisition rarely saw any sort of restaurant co-brands now has all sorts of them now. I don't know how many other 7-Elevens are co-branded with a Long John Silver's/KFC or a Schlotzsky's, but there sure can't be too many of them.
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: February 19th, 2022, 9:31 pm

I moved recently and the 7-Eleven store mix is modern but a franken-chain made up of various acquisitions. So now, 7-Eleven, which pre-acquisition rarely saw any sort of restaurant co-brands now has all sorts of them now. I don't know how many other 7-Elevens are co-branded with a Long John Silver's/KFC or a Schlotzsky's, but there sure can't be too many of them.
There are 3 7-Eleven in my area with food co brands:
Longley Lane Reno- Wendy's
Prater Way Sparks-Carl's
N. McCarran Blvd. Reno- Carl's

The above 3 sites were all built as "Express Super Mart" sites; Longley was the first one and did very well. It opened with Beacon fuel and a c-store that rivaled a supermarket minus the meat and produce (had low prices too). Then they opened Sparks, which was smaller, and it didn't do quite as well. It also opened with Beacon fuel. Then they opened North McCarran which opened with Tesoro fuel, did not immediately have a car wash/lube operator when it opened, which did even worse and sunk them. They rebranded the other two to Tesoro fuel as well. Beacon fuel had some of the lowest prices in town; Tesoro was more mid-priced. Not long went by before 7-Eleven took over operations of these sites. For a time Longley was the world's largest 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven immediately franchised Longley (isn't bad for a 7-Eleven) and Sparks (awful place) but ran North McCarran as a corporate 7-Eleven for a number of years, reportedly because it lost so much money they couldn't find a franchisee, but couldn't close it because closing it would look so bad. It has since been franchised out.
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by BillyGr »

luckysaver wrote: February 18th, 2022, 1:35 am In some parts of CA such as LA and SF, styrofoam food packaging (including drink cups) are banned by local ordinances citing environmental reasons, so eateries and c-stores had to switch to paper or the hybrid type cups (paper layer wrapped around foam). Remember when McDonalds had foam coffee cups in the 1990's? However, anybody can still mass purchase foam cups from Smart & Final, Amazon, or a foodservice supplier and serve drinks at private events in the very same jurisdictions that banned foam packaging.
NY just banned the foam starting at the beginning of 2022. Cumberland and Speedway had those, so have switched to something else, but here & there you still find the foam (Cumberland particularly, apparently they have had issues getting the new ones and are using up foam ones in place when they run short).

The difference here is that those items are no longer sold in stores either (foam, be it cups, plates, bowls etc.), so it is hard to find stuff in some categories (like hot beverage cups where very few non-foam options existed before this).
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by storewanderer »

Went into a conversion unit branded 7-Eleven. Former Thifty that previously was branded Arco. This unit was never actually branded to Speedway but one of the locations that was basically a Speedway without the name on it.

Fuel price was about .40 below surrounding stations including another older 7-Eleven not far away.

Gas pump has a chip reader but is swipe only... unbelievable and unacceptable in a high fraud market like Southern California to have the Chip hardware but not activate it so it actually works...

Went into the store. This unit is considered a corporate operated 7-Eleven and had 4 employees on duty (needed one or two). They spent nothing in the store. I don't think anyone spent any monry in this store since about 1992. Soda machine is an old 8 flavor machine that looks 20 years old. There is a machine with 3 slurpee flavors, not sure where it came from but it is not a slurpee machine. The counters at drink area and checkout are red and faded with paint worn off so badly.

Had this actually converted to Speedway they would have put in all new counters and drink equipment. I find it very interesting 7-Eleven is handling conversions in this manner literally doing nothing but throwing a sign out front.
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Re: Speedway/7-Eleven integration

Post by ClownLoach »

Went to the built from the ground up Speedway in Irvine last night. I wish I hadn't. This was my favorite convenience store in town and now it is just a 7-Eleven in name only. Nearly all aisles and refrigerated cases have been converted to 7-Eleven assortment now, or I should say lack of assortment. Speedway had really creative flavors of chips available that sometimes sounded scary, like a Pizza flavor and Fire Roasted Corn, but they were actually pretty good. All gone. The soda machine is fully rebranded with Big Gulp signs and of course the 99 cent any size drink is gone. The big size has doubled in price. They removed the Speedway Club card kiosk, yet some sales still require the club and there is no longer a way to sign up in store - brilliant. But the worst is that the Speedy Freeze machine is broken, still Speedway sign and cups, but a big price sticker that says Slurpee pricing. The price has tripled for the same product. And it is clear that cleaning and maintenance has been slashed. The gas pumps were always shiny and new looking because they were sprayed and wiped down daily. Now they are the filthiest pumps in town - aside from the 7-Eleven on Irvine Center. The bathrooms used to be spotlessly clean, I can't imagine how bad they probably are now too. 7-Eleven is a bad joke. I feel like they are intentionally running the Speedway brand into the toilet before they convert it to their name just to make sure they don't have to do any work later on to protect the trademark as it will be so bad nobody will ever resurrect it.
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