7-Eleven buying large chunk of Sunoco

[jamcool]

Hard to keep a cleanliness/friendlyness campaign when you run a mostly franchise operation, most of who are one and two store operators with long term contracts who basically run a liquor store with Slurpees.

[storewanderer]

I am curious.

I cannot find ONE 7-11 anywhere close to me that is decent or at least clean.

Does anyone know of a location in the Los Angeles area that is actually nice?

In Reno they opened a new 7-11 a couple years ago. It opened as a franchise store from day one, rather than corporate operated as it should be when it is a new store. It was real nice when it opened, I posted about it here. It didn't take long before it became dirty, broken equipment, restrooms blocked off/closed, etc.

This new 7-11 does however often have the lowest gas price in town or one of the lowest. Usually .30 cheaper than a couple other 7-11s a mile away. It is the only one in the area with a Cash Price/Credit Price. So this weekend I went over there since gas prices were spiking up. Their sign said:
UNLEADED CASH 3.78
UNLEADED CREDIT 4.12
DIESEL CASH 3.88
DIESEL CASH 4.22
Obviously their sign was confused.
I pulled to the pump and the pump displayed a price of 3.99 for Unleaded and 4.12 for Diesel.
I went into the store and saw a post it note attached to the cash register facing the customer that said FUEL UNL 3.99.
I did a cash payment for fuel and went back out to the pump since the 3.99 was about the best deal in town (Costco/Sams at 3.94 but didn't want to mess with their lines). The price on the pump did roll down by .10 to 3.89. I was back by there again a couple days ago and they STILL had not fixed their sign and at this point their fuel price had increased to 4.19.

I didn't engage with the employee who was dressed in street clothes and no uniform or name tag, had he not been behind the counter I wouldn't have known he worked there. I asked for a receipt because I wasn't 100% sure he was an employee and when I gave him the cash and told him the pump he took it and said "thank you" and then wasn't doing anything on the register immediately but was staring at it and holding my cash. So I wanted to make sure he actually input it to the system to the right pump before going back out. The store was dirty and the self serve food areas were not stocked well. I didn't look closely to see how much of the equipment inside was broken. The counter was filthy. Trash overflowing outside at the pump. Typical 7-11. Place may as well be 40 years old like most of them around town are; same experience and site condition.

[Brian Lutz]

My sister in law from Utah visited us last week, and we spent the weekend down in Charlotte. I made a point of stopping in at a QuikTrip while we were down there just so she could see the two entire walls full of fountain drinks and coffees/teas they have. She actually lives right near a fairly nice and well kept Maverik, but even by those standards a QuikTrip is just kind of ridiculous.

[storewanderer]

My sister in law from Utah visited us last week, and we spent the weekend down in Charlotte. I made a point of stopping in at a QuikTrip while we were down there just so she could see the two entire walls full of fountain drinks and coffees/teas they have. She actually lives right near a fairly nice and well kept Maverik, but even by those standards a QuikTrip is just kind of ridiculous.

Maverik is like a sad grand but then let go backwoods outhouse compared to Quik Trip. Great idea, nice facility, not enough staff, not efficient enough staff, lousy execution. I kind of keep hoping they sell out to Circle K. But Maverik runs some pretty good deals so maybe it is fine as it is. I also notice despite anything that the gas pumps and restrooms at Maverik sites are usually clean (no matter how bad the rest of the store is or how slow/bad the service is).

If Maverik would speed up its service it would get them a lot further. Self checkout is the saving grace there.

[veteran+]

I am curious.

I cannot find ONE 7-11 anywhere close to me that is decent or at least clean.

Does anyone know of a location in the Los Angeles area that is actually nice?

In Reno they opened a new 7-11 a couple years ago. It opened as a franchise store from day one, rather than corporate operated as it should be when it is a new store. It was real nice when it opened, I posted about it here. It didn't take long before it became dirty, broken equipment, restrooms blocked off/closed, etc.

This new 7-11 does however often have the lowest gas price in town or one of the lowest. Usually .30 cheaper than a couple other 7-11s a mile away. It is the only one in the area with a Cash Price/Credit Price. So this weekend I went over there since gas prices were spiking up. Their sign said:
UNLEADED CASH 3.78
UNLEADED CREDIT 4.12
DIESEL CASH 3.88
DIESEL CASH 4.22
Obviously their sign was confused.
I pulled to the pump and the pump displayed a price of 3.99 for Unleaded and 4.12 for Diesel.
I went into the store and saw a post it note attached to the cash register facing the customer that said FUEL UNL 3.99.
I did a cash payment for fuel and went back out to the pump since the 3.99 was about the best deal in town (Costco/Sams at 3.94 but didn't want to mess with their lines). The price on the pump did roll down by .10 to 3.89. I was back by there again a couple days ago and they STILL had not fixed their sign and at this point their fuel price had increased to 4.19.

I didn't engage with the employee who was dressed in street clothes and no uniform or name tag, had he not been behind the counter I wouldn't have known he worked there. I asked for a receipt because I wasn't 100% sure he was an employee and when I gave him the cash and told him the pump he took it and said "thank you" and then wasn't doing anything on the register immediately but was staring at it and holding my cash. So I wanted to make sure he actually input it to the system to the right pump before going back out. The store was dirty and the self serve food areas were not stocked well. I didn't look closely to see how much of the equipment inside was broken. The counter was filthy. Trash overflowing outside at the pump. Typical 7-11. Place may as well be 40 years old like most of them around town are; same experience and site condition.

That is just inane!

[Brian Lutz]

A couple of years ago when I still lived in WA there was a new 7-Eleven location in Everett (converted from what I believe used to be a Mobil station with a generic C-store on Everett Mall Way) where they built the whole thing out, then upon completion of the store they mothballed it, fenced off the gas island and put big "franchise this location" signs on the fence, which seems to suggest that they had no intention of operating this particular location as anything but a franchised store. It did eventually open, but not before sitting idle for the better part of six months.

[storewanderer]

A couple of years ago when I still lived in WA there was a new 7-Eleven location in Everett (converted from what I believe used to be a Mobil station with a generic C-store on Everett Mall Way) where they built the whole thing out, then upon completion of the store they mothballed it, fenced off the gas island and put big "franchise this location" signs on the fence, which seems to suggest that they had no intention of operating this particular location as anything but a franchised store. It did eventually open, but not before sitting idle for the better part of six months.

This is what happened with the new Reno site on Rock too. They built the building and basically finished the building structure (didn't bring any equipment inside), and it sat for months and months seeking a franchise. Eventually they dug for the gas storage and built the gas pump area then it opened. They awarded the franchise to a franchisee who has a few busy but old non gas stores in poor neighborhoods.

The second new location they opened in Reno on Lemmon was a relocation so its construction progressed at a normal rate and it opened with the franchisees from the old non gas location down the road. They are so unfriendly and rude. Site is filthy. Circle K owns land across the street but doesn't seem to be doing anything and as of January Circle K is 100% out of the market in Reno/Tahoe.

[buckguy]

Hard to keep a cleanliness/friendlyness campaign when you run a mostly franchise operation, most of who are one and two store operators with long term contracts who basically run a liquor store with Slurpees.

7-11 must have a fairly decentralized management structure or at least some people who are better judges of franchises than others. They've made a significant investment in the DC area over the last 10-15 years, most of it "inside the Beltway" where, oddly, they don't face as much new competition from Sheetz and others. They've also closed a number of low volume locations. They also closed the one closest to me which did plenty of volume---I suspect it was a greedy landlord because there have been 2 remodels and 3 or 4 different leasing agents and they still haven't rented the space in over 2 years.

They've done pretty well with the turnpike Sunocos c-stores---they've greatly expanded the range of merchandise. They also seem to have done OK with the BP c-stores they bought. Some things don't change, though---the Slurpee machines don't always work anywhere and the roll out of Laredo Taco seems very spotty. There's only one or two in the DC area and the only other one I've seen in the Eastern half of the country was a random location W of Cleveland.