『#226: 7-Eleven – The World’s Biggest』のカバーアート

#226: 7-Eleven – The World’s Biggest

#226: 7-Eleven – The World’s Biggest

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 Joe Thompson saw the future shifting with the invention of the refrigerator. So with innovation after innovation we now have convenience stores. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom-and-pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is... Well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients, so here's one of those. [OG Law Ad] Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, Dave Young here alongside Stephen Semple, and Stephen just whispered into my ear the name of the empire that we're going to discuss today, and oh, thank heaven. I've been waiting for this one to come along, 7-Eleven. Stephen Semple: 7-Eleven. Yeah. Dave Young: 7-Eleven. Stephen Semple: It's the largest retail chain in the world. Dave Young: Is it really? Stephen Semple: Yes. Yes. Dave Young: Is it franchises, or is it a combination of something? Stephen Semple: Oh, it's franchises. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Yes, it's franchises. But 85,000 stores in 20 countries. Dave Young: That's amazing. Yeah, they're everywhere. Stephen Semple: There's 13,000 in Canada and the U.S. alone. Dave Young: You know what I love about their name? It's spelled the same no matter what language you speak. Stephen Semple: Well, that's a good point. I never thought about that. Dave Young: Right. You look at a 7-Eleven sign, and it doesn't matter what the native language is, it's two numerals, and you recognize that brand by the color and the numerals, and you know exactly what to expect. Stephen Semple: Yeah. They're the largest in the world. They're also now owned by a Japanese company. It was bought out after a disastrous leverage buyout that was done by the Thompson family, but a story as old as life itself. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: But back to 7-Eleven, and it's a story that starts back in 1927 in Dallas, Texas as the Southland Ice Company. Now, I wasn't actually able to find the founding date for the Southland Ice Company, everything, I found said it was 1927, but I really believe it happened before that. But that said, that's when our story starts, is in 1927, with the selling of blocks of ice. So we think about- Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: ... in those days, ice houses were really important. People would go and buy big blocks of ice and take them home, and that was basically your ice box. Dave Young: Yeah, or there would be delivery trucks going around with big blocks of ice. Yeah, either way. Stephen Semple: Yeah. But it was an important part of life. We forget that how you kept things cool was, you basically had... Let's face it, what you basically had was a cooler in your house. You threw ice in the ice box, and that's what kept things cool. And look, every town had one, or if it was a bigger town, more than one. So Joe Thompson is the owner of the Southland Ice Company, but he sees this new trend coming, and he's a little bit worried. He's worried that refrigerators are going to start to steal his business. Now, the early refrigerators are actually quite dangerous. They would break down, and they would release these dangerous fumes. But in 1927, GE releases a new refrigerator that runs on Freon, and it could also get below freezing. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: And look, electricity was starting to be in most homes. And shortly after GE's launch, 56 other companies started to also develop refrigerators. Dave Young: So you could make your own ice. Stick it to the man. Stephen Semple: Yeah, there you go. Dave Young: Yes. Stephen Semple:
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