7-Eleven: A Convenience Store

7-Eleven: A Convenience Store

With more than 23,000 stores in about 20 countries, 7-Eleven is one of the largest convenience

store chains in the world. It has about 9,000 stores in Japan and almost 6,000 in

the United States. 7-Eleven Japan is one of the most profitable companies listed on the

Tokyo stock exchange. Its success is attributed primarily to its supply chain design and

Source: Kalakota, R., and M. Robinson, M-Business: The Race to Mobility. McGraw-Hill, 2002, fig. 9.10, p. 301.

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management ability. One of the key objectives of 7-Eleven Japan is to micro-match supply

and demand by location, season, and time of day. To fulfill this objective, 7-Eleven Japan

opens new stores in target areas. This helps 7-Eleven establish a strong presence, and it consolidates

its warehousing and transportation functions. In addition, all stores are connected

electronically to the head office, distribution centers (DCs), and suppliers. Orders are passed

to the suppliers, which package store-specific orders and deliver them to the DC.At the DC,

all orders of like products from different suppliers are combined and delivered to the stores.

7-Eleven Japan has made an effort to have no direct store delivery from vendors to the stores.

In the United States, 7-Eleven is taking a similar approach to the one used in Japan, except

that a large fraction