7-Eleven To Open 600 New Stores by 2027 (And They’re Getting a Serious Upgrade)

7-Eleven is one of the world's largest retailers — and its footprint is about to grow in a big way. This familiar corner store is expanding to an all-new design. 

With over 600 new locations planned to open, these modern, food-centric stores will offer freshly prepared, made-to-order, and frozen foods, as well as an expanded selection of merchandise and technology.

The New Standard stores could represent big changes for 7-Eleven's brand. Here's what we know about the implementation so far, so you'll be ready to stretch your food and drink budget.

The company anticipates that the new stores will be implemented rapidly. 7-Eleven plans to complete 115 New Standard stores by the end of 2024, and according to 7-Eleven CEO Joe DePinto, "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."

The company hasn't released a comprehensive list of locations or dates for these new stores, but here's what we know about the few that have opened so far.

A few of the New Standard stores are already welcoming customers. A prototype location opened in Allen, Texas in November, and based on a LinkedIn post from Senior Operations Manager of Implementation Robin Shivers, the location is decked out with a Laredo Taco restaurant, a self-checkout station, and a 360 coffee bar.

Another New Standard store has since opened in Irving, TX — the home of 7-Eleven's headquarters.

These new standard stores will revolve around more modern food choices and a streamlined customer experience. According to DePinto, the New Standard stores will have food-forward features such as:

• Self-serve roller grills
• Grab-and-go cases
• Bake-in-store items
• Specialty beverages (iced coffee, lattes, espresso)
• Restaurants like Laredo Taco
• EV charging stations
• Mobile checkout
• A larger assortment of fresh foods
• In-store seating

The New Standard stores will be larger, more tech-enabled, and serious competitors to contemporary fast food options. This will allow customers to get gas, food, and other convenient items all in one place.

So far, the strategy seems promising. According to the company, this new model is already outperforming previous stores.

7-Eleven's Evolution stores, which launched in 2019, featured in-store restaurants like Laredo Taco and a self-serve cold treats bar. Some stores even had craft beer, cigars, wine cellars, and drive-thrus. These Evolution stores were designed to be a testing ground for new products and ideas.

Though many features overlap between these two models (restaurants, made-to-order specialty drinks, mobile ordering, delivery, and more), the New Standard model has expanded food offerings even further and is more centered around food, with add-ons like in-store seating and EV chargers.

The company learned a lot through its first modernization efforts of the Evolution stores and has big plans moving forward. They heard their customers loud and clear: they wanted larger stores with personalized food-forward offerings and more fuel pumps. So, 7-Eleven planned to incorporate the feedback in the new models.

DePinto notes that only about half of the U.S. (51%) has a 7-Eleven store within two miles, so there's plenty of room to grow the company's footprint. Specifically, 7-Eleven hopes to do everything from expanding products to improving efficiency to growing the store network so that customers get high-quality food conveniently and at a great value.

While 7-Eleven is expanding, the company has also recently announced closures. The convenience store giant plans to close 444 of its underperforming locations, citing shifting consumer behavior due to inflation and low cigarette sales as some of the reasons for poor performance.

Sales have taken a hit, but in-store traffic is down too. After several months of decline, August saw a 7.3% drop. The company also plans to sell and lease back an undisclosed number of stores, which will help with its expansion plans.

Currently, 7-Eleven operates over 83,000 stores across 19 countries and regions, with over 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.

While people may think of 7-Eleven as an American company, the chief stakeholder since 1991 has been a Japanese firm, Ito-Yokato, who founded Seven & i Holdings, the parent company of 7-Eleven — and there are actually many more 7-Eleven stores in Japan than in the U.S.

7-Eleven's parent company, Seven & i Holdings, received an acquisition offer from its next-largest competitor, Alimentation Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K. The original bid was $39 billion, which Seven & i Holdings rejected.

In October, Alimentation Couche-Tard increased its bid by 22%. If the offer is accepted and the two companies merge, they would control 20% of the U.S. convenience store market.

Currently, the companies are discussing a $58 billion buyout that would take the company private. These talks are limited and preliminary, so we'll have to wait and see what's in store for 7-Eleven's future.

The 7-Eleven of tomorrow will look and feel quite different from the corner convenience store you're used to but in all the best ways. The company is listening to and implementing feedback from consumers and striving to improve the customer experience.

From more modern and fresh food options to custom drinks, you'll have more than just gas station burritos and soda to use your best cash back credit card on. Though the future is uncertain given the talks of an acquisition, if 7-Eleven stays the course, there's much to look forward to for both the company and its customers.