BlogGang.com : : a_somjai - ON TIME: เรื่องของเวลา …บนนาฬิกาจักรกล…จนถึงคอมพิวเตอร์

ขอบคุณ Plin, :-p ที่ให้ความรู้เพิ่มเติมครับ
จากข้อมูล ที่ผมพอจะค้นได้ ถึงที่มาที่ไปของ 7-11 ก็ยังไม่มีความเห็นแย้งอะไร

จะอย่างไรก็ดี ประเด็นสำคัญอยู่ที่เนื้อหาของ "การใช้ชีวิตของคนเรา ในช่วง เวลา แต่ละนาทีของวันคืน ที่เปลี่ยนแปลงไป อย่างไร้ช่องว่าง (ต่อเนื่อง ยาวนาน มิรู้หลับ) เหมือนการเดินทางของเข็มนาฬิกา" ครับ

เพื่อเติมความเข้าใจเรื่อง ชีวิตสังคม เศรษฐกิจ และเวลา ในแต่ละวันของมนุษย์โลกยุคใหม่-ไฮเทค
ได้ค้นเรื่องราวของ 7-11 มาแปะไว้ให้อ่านกัน ข้างท้ายนี้ครับ

//www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050321/BUSINESS01/503210311/1066/BUSINESS01

7-Eleven stores redefine 'convenience'
By BARBARA WOLLER
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: March 21, 2005)

The 7-Eleven convenience-store chain — known for Slurpees, Big Gulps, Big Bite hot dogs and, more recently, Southwest Jalapeno and Cheese-Flavored Big Eats Griller Sausage Sandwiches — is having a makeover.

The Dallas-based company said many of its traditional customers have been men who drive pickup trucks, and it wants to keep their business. But today it wants to become a destination for business people, and women, in particular.

Redefining what "convenience" means is part of the overhaul, too.

For decades, convenience stores were so named because they were open long hours. Now it also means anticipating products and services its customers may need and having them in stock as well as speedy check-out at the cash registers.

For 7-Eleven, those needs could include gift cards from retailers such as Blockbuster and The Sharper Image, among others. These could come in handy, say, if a customer forgot to pick up a present for a friend.

The chain has also added two Nokia budget-priced handsets to its proprietary Speak Out Wireless prepaid line.

"Today, we look at time-starved people," said James W. Keyes, president and chief executive of 7-Eleven Inc., who is leading the charge for change.

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The Southland Corp. had been the parent of the 7-Eleven stores until it changed its corporate name to 7-Eleven Inc. in 1999.

7-Eleven is the largest convenience-store chain in both the world and in the United States, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. It has about 27,900 stores worldwide.

There are some 5,800 locations in the United States and Canada, which are either operated by franchisees, licensees or the company. Licensees and their affiliates operate about 22,100 stores in 17 foreign countries and U.S. territories.

Seven-Eleven Japan was the company's first overseas licensee in the early 1970s. It was enormously successful and today is the largest licensee with more than 10,000 stores.

So successful, in fact, that when The Southland Corp. filed for bankruptcy court protection in 1990, Seven-Eleven Japan and its parent company, Ito-Yokado Co., formed a Delaware company called IYG Holding Group, which bought a majority interest of about 70 percent of Southland's stock.

Bloomberg News reported last month that Ito-Yokado sold its entire stake in the company to Seven-Eleven Japan, to cover costs relating to closing unprofitable stores in other parts of its operation. So since February, Seven-Eleven Japan and its IYG Holding Co. affiliate are the majority shareholders in 7-Eleven Inc. with about 74 percent of the stock.

So far the change in strategies is boosting the company's bottom line and the fourth quarter of last year was the 33rd consecutive quarterly increase in merchandise sales at stores open at least a year.

Keyes is confident that the company is on the right path.

He said the growth of the company has been made possible by the more than $500 million it has invested in its network to handle distribution and inventory control of merchandise. The enhanced distribution network is also enabling it to have smaller stores, which means lower real estate costs.

"We're finding if we can deliver products like Coke and Pepsi every day instead of once a week we don't need as big a store," Keyes said. "It lets us go into office buildings and places where we never would have gone in the past," such as college campuses and airports.