New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Gas stations & convenience stores (AM/PM, 7-Eleven, etc.)
storewanderer
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New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by storewanderer »

I am interested in hearing about new build 7-Eleven Stores in the former Stripes market of Houston, TX. These would be stores that seemed to be primarily constructed in the 2019-2022 period of time. Most of them seem to be built with Exxon/Mobil fuel.

How many new build (not former Strips) did 7-Eleven build in these markets since they acquired Stripes?

I am particularly interested in the following cities in Texas:

How many new stores did they build (not Stripes conversions) in each of the following cities?

Mount Enterprise
Tyler
Houston
Richmond
Cypress
Rosenberg
Safford
Spring
Pasadena
Highlands
Pearland
Sugar Land
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by wnetmacman »

storewanderer wrote: October 12th, 2024, 9:58 pm I am interested in hearing about new build 7-Eleven Stores in the former Stripes market of Houston, TX. These would be stores that seemed to be primarily constructed in the 2019-2022 period of time. Most of them seem to be built with Exxon/Mobil fuel.

How many new build (not former Strips) did 7-Eleven build in these markets since they acquired Stripes?

I am particularly interested in the following cities in Texas:

How many new stores did they build (not Stripes conversions) in each of the following cities?

Mount Enterprise
Tyler
Houston
Richmond
Cypress
Rosenberg
Safford
Spring
Pasadena
Highlands
Pearland
Sugar Land
Mount Enterprise is a town of less than 1000 folks, but it's in rural Rusk county. Stripes did not expand up that way - the same goes for Tyler. Mount Enterprise is a conversion from a Whataburger C-Store combo.

The remaining stores are around or suburbs of Houston - it could go either way.

There are three Stripes stores in Louisiana that have not been converted (in name) to 7-Eleven.
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: October 12th, 2024, 9:58 pm I am interested in hearing about new build 7-Eleven Stores in the former Stripes market of Houston, TX. These would be stores that seemed to be primarily constructed in the 2019-2022 period of time. Most of them seem to be built with Exxon/Mobil fuel.

How many new build (not former Strips) did 7-Eleven build in these markets since they acquired Stripes?

I am particularly interested in the following cities in Texas:

How many new stores did they build (not Stripes conversions) in each of the following cities?

Mount Enterprise
Tyler
Houston
Richmond
Cypress
Rosenberg
Safford
Spring
Pasadena
Highlands
Pearland
Sugar Land
There are a handful of stores in the Houston market (including Bryan-College Station) that are converted RaceWay sites. These typically are the ones that have the Mobil/Exxon brandings but some, like at 10670 W Little York Rd were originals.

If I recall there weren't a lot of Stripes stores in the Houston area, maybe around two dozen in the entire metro area. There are also several Stripes stores hanging around, there's one in San Marcos the last I checked, Llano, and of course the mega-Stripes in Bryan...and they do have 7-Eleven integration, like the Big Gulp name on Stripes' design.
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by HoustonRetail »

I can only give info on the parts of Houston I frequent, but this is what I know.

Houston
There were about ten spread across city limits. They have no new representation inside the loop, solely conversions. They did experiment with delivery via Uber in that area. A few more were planned and abandoned. Of these ~10 new builds, some have already closed, so they are likely within the single digits now.

Richmond
2 with one already closed; these are in "suburban Richmond," not within city limits.

Rosenberg
1, this was a strong area for Stripes.

Safford
1

Pasadena
1

Highlands
1

Pearland
1

Sugar Land
0

Most of their more successful locations are former Stripes stores, although many of those have also closed. They're also getting out of the less profitable Raceway conversions. There are also a handful of oddball locations that I assume were part of some deal with King Fuels. One was already open (Chevron in Midtown); the other two were built out and opened as 7-Eleven. However, they were built according to the typical Chevron Food Mart standard.
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: October 14th, 2024, 8:22 pm
storewanderer wrote: October 12th, 2024, 9:58 pm I am interested in hearing about new build 7-Eleven Stores in the former Stripes market of Houston, TX. These would be stores that seemed to be primarily constructed in the 2019-2022 period of time. Most of them seem to be built with Exxon/Mobil fuel.

How many new build (not former Strips) did 7-Eleven build in these markets since they acquired Stripes?

I am particularly interested in the following cities in Texas:

How many new stores did they build (not Stripes conversions) in each of the following cities?

Mount Enterprise
Tyler
Houston
Richmond
Cypress
Rosenberg
Safford
Spring
Pasadena
Highlands
Pearland
Sugar Land
There are a handful of stores in the Houston market (including Bryan-College Station) that are converted RaceWay sites. These typically are the ones that have the Mobil/Exxon brandings but some, like at 10670 W Little York Rd were originals.

If I recall there weren't a lot of Stripes stores in the Houston area, maybe around two dozen in the entire metro area. There are also several Stripes stores hanging around, there's one in San Marcos the last I checked, Llano, and of course the mega-Stripes in Bryan...and they do have 7-Eleven integration, like the Big Gulp name on Stripes' design.
That is a lot fewer Stripes than I thought existed in Houston before they did the purchase of the chain. So basically they took over a bunch of random c-stores and tried to assemble a dominant c-store chain in Houston. The locations that have Laredo Taco are basically Stripes Stores (including decor) but have a 7-Eleven sign out front (same goes in Oklahoma- even using Stripes final interior decor with the white walls and black department signs).
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by storewanderer »

HoustonRetail wrote: October 14th, 2024, 9:08 pm I can only give info on the parts of Houston I frequent, but this is what I know.

Houston
There were about ten spread across city limits. They have no new representation inside the loop, solely conversions. They did experiment with delivery via Uber in that area. A few more were planned and abandoned. Of these ~10 new builds, some have already closed, so they are likely within the single digits now.

Richmond
2 with one already closed; these are in "suburban Richmond," not within city limits.

Rosenberg
1, this was a strong area for Stripes.

Safford
1

Pasadena
1

Highlands
1

Pearland
1

Sugar Land
0

Most of their more successful locations are former Stripes stores, although many of those have also closed. They're also getting out of the less profitable Raceway conversions. There are also a handful of oddball locations that I assume were part of some deal with King Fuels. One was already open (Chevron in Midtown); the other two were built out and opened as 7-Eleven. However, they were built according to the typical Chevron Food Mart standard.
Very interesting. So some of the new build locations built by 7-Eleven have already closed...? What happened to the locations, were they taken over by other convenience store operators or just closed outright?

I wonder what the issue is with them closing new build stores? This is very odd and I am not used to seeing new convenience stores of major chains that are corporate operated close when they're less than a few years old.

I wonder if 7-Eleven cannot make these new (higher cost, higher rent) sites work so they have a way to exit quickly if the site doesn't work out, and do not hesitate to do so.

And if Quik Trip decides to do a full build out in the Houston Market beyond the few stores they've opened under the "remote" model- it will be even worse for them. Maybe Laredo Taco can save them but given these new stores that closed already, did feature Laredo Taco...
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by HoustonRetail »

storewanderer wrote: October 14th, 2024, 11:12 pm
Very interesting. So some of the new build locations built by 7-Eleven have already closed...? What happened to the locations, were they taken over by other convenience store operators or just closed outright?

I wonder what the issue is with them closing new build stores? This is very odd and I am not used to seeing new convenience stores of major chains that are corporate operated close when they're less than a few years old.

I wonder if 7-Eleven cannot make these new (higher cost, higher rent) sites work so they have a way to exit quickly if the site doesn't work out, and do not hesitate to do so.

And if Quik Trip decides to do a full build out in the Houston Market beyond the few stores they've opened under the "remote" model- it will be even worse for them. Maybe Laredo Taco can save them but given these new stores that closed already, did feature Laredo Taco...
Yes, some new builds have already closed. They're just sitting boarded up at this point; they've only been closed for a few weeks to a month. Stripes certainly had a presence here, but it was never that dense; they did a decent amount of fuel supply here though. Many of the ex-Raceways are being converted to independents; one is even knocking them off as "Super 7." I'm having trouble figuring out exactly why they've closed, but everything I've found points to poor sales. Circle K via CST is far more dominant; oddly, many of those locations are former 7-Elevens. QT has its eyes on opening a few new stores in Houston next year. We're also overloaded with crap independents, like Now & Forever.
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by storewanderer »

HoustonRetail wrote: October 15th, 2024, 6:29 pm

Yes, some new builds have already closed. They're just sitting boarded up at this point; they've only been closed for a few weeks to a month. Stripes certainly had a presence here, but it was never that dense; they did a decent amount of fuel supply here though. Many of the ex-Raceways are being converted to independents; one is even knocking them off as "Super 7." I'm having trouble figuring out exactly why they've closed, but everything I've found points to poor sales. Circle K via CST is far more dominant; oddly, many of those locations are former 7-Elevens. QT has its eyes on opening a few new stores in Houston next year. We're also overloaded with crap independents, like Now & Forever.
Houston is interesting since these are all corporate operated 7-Elevens.

I did some research on stores that have already closed so that is publicly available information online.

The closure of new build stores which appears to be ongoing as I see some closed just last month, indicates a major problem. They must be losing so much money it is cheaper to board these sites up and walk away than continue operations.

Was Stripes doing poorly like this?

They've sued competitors for using the name Super 7 before so it is surprising one of their stores reopened under that name. My understanding on many stores they get rid of is they retain the fuel and just shift store operations over to a new operator and debrand the store.
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by HoustonRetail »

storewanderer wrote: October 15th, 2024, 11:32 pm
Houston is interesting since these are all corporate operated 7-Elevens.

I did some research on stores that have already closed so that is publicly available information online.

The closure of new build stores which appears to be ongoing as I see some closed just last month, indicates a major problem. They must be losing so much money it is cheaper to board these sites up and walk away than continue operations.

Was Stripes doing poorly like this?

They've sued competitors for using the name Super 7 before so it is surprising one of their stores reopened under that name. My understanding on many stores they get rid of is they retain the fuel and just shift store operations over to a new operator and debrand the store.
No Stripes was not doing as poorly. There are certainly a few ex-Stripes which have closed that certainly make sense, but for the most part the downhill spiral started after the merger. I have suspicions they may be dealing with a decent amount of shrink. Circle K has some locations that retain armed guards, although this has let up in the past few months. I'm wondering if some of the franchised Cal's Convenience Stripes that finally fell into 7-Eleven's lap when Delek sold has something to do with this.
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Re: New build 7-Eleven Stores in Houston, TX and surrounding Markets (not Stripes conversions)

Post by storewanderer »

HoustonRetail wrote: October 16th, 2024, 6:11 pm
storewanderer wrote: October 15th, 2024, 11:32 pm
Houston is interesting since these are all corporate operated 7-Elevens.

I did some research on stores that have already closed so that is publicly available information online.

The closure of new build stores which appears to be ongoing as I see some closed just last month, indicates a major problem. They must be losing so much money it is cheaper to board these sites up and walk away than continue operations.

Was Stripes doing poorly like this?

They've sued competitors for using the name Super 7 before so it is surprising one of their stores reopened under that name. My understanding on many stores they get rid of is they retain the fuel and just shift store operations over to a new operator and debrand the store.
No Stripes was not doing as poorly. There are certainly a few ex-Stripes which have closed that certainly make sense, but for the most part the downhill spiral started after the merger. I have suspicions they may be dealing with a decent amount of shrink. Circle K has some locations that retain armed guards, although this has let up in the past few months. I'm wondering if some of the franchised Cal's Convenience Stripes that finally fell into 7-Eleven's lap when Delek sold has something to do with this.
What confuses me is closing new build stores while keeping older stores open. This reminds me so much of Kmart after the first bankruptcy.

Maybe the problem is 7-Eleven is trying to do too many things at the same time. New build US Stores, trying to integrate multiple acquisitions, ongoing rebranding of unbranded fuel stations to stations with branded fuel under various brands...

But these failures of new build stores I find very odd. This tells me Japan issued an order to go build x number of stores and the US management did improper site selection to meet that demand and now this is the result. Or the operation has such a poor reputation in the US that it can't turn a profit with new sites so these sites are better off sitting boarded up than being operated by 7-Eleven. Closing sites that are 2, 3, 4, 5 years old does not make sense. Sure you may have a random store or two fail but this is more than a random store or two...

This does kind of go along with some of their new build stores I've seen in CA, CO, and WA. I am scratching my head at some of the locations they've picked and wondered how they are making it. While they don't seem to be closing the new builds in those states, I have to wonder how they are doing.

I find it even more strange they'd close in a market like Houston which has very low operating costs.

Not sure how the Cal's Convenience Stripes would cause these new build stores to close. Maybe a shift in priorities- can't afford to fund bleeding new stores anymore as they need to fund the integration of these Cal's Convenience units. Not to mention they have yet to rebrand any Speedways that I am aware of. I think plans to rebrand Speedway have been canceled.
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