As one of the most well-known and ubiquitous retailers in the world, 711 has built a reputation for convenience, consistency and round-the-clock service. For many consumers, the sight of the glowing orange-and-green 711 sign is a welcome promise that they can grab a quick snack, beverage or other necessity at any time of day or night.
But is "always open" actually a guarantee for every 711 store? The short answer is no – but the full story is a bit more complicated. While 711 locations were once virtually synonymous with 24/7 operation, changing economic conditions, consumer preferences and business strategies have led to a more varied approach to store hours in recent years.
To get a clearer picture of when you can expect to find your local 711 open (or closed), let‘s take a deep dive into the past, present and future of the brand‘s operating hours. We‘ll examine the trends shaping 711‘s decisions, see how it compares to industry competitors, and weigh the potential benefits and drawbacks of staying open around the clock in today‘s fast-changing retail landscape.
The Rise of 24/7 Convenience
First, a bit of history. The 711 brand traces its roots all the way back to 1927, when several ice house storefronts in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas started selling staples like milk, eggs and bread to local customers. The stores were dubbed "711" because they remained open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week – a remarkably expansive schedule for the era.
As the company grew over the following decades, so did its operating hours. Stores began experimenting with staying open later, first until midnight, then to 2 a.m. or even 3 a.m. to catch customers leaving bars or getting off late shifts. When the company started focusing on drawing teenagers and young adults in the early 1960s by stocking magazines, music and snacks, it pushed even more locations to extend hours.
According to company lore, true 24/7 operation started almost by accident in Austin in 1963. A 711 near the University of Texas campus stayed open all night to handle a massive surge in business after a football game, and the owners were stunned by the jump in sales and profits. The store decided to make the longer hours permanent, and other Texas locations soon followed suit.
Over the following years and decades, 711 pioneered a model of anytime-anywhere convenience that completely transformed the retail sector. By the 1970s, "open around the clock" had become a powerful differentiator for the brand, a promise that consumers could always rely on a nearby 711 no matter where they were or what time it was. The company eventually instituted a policy requiring franchisees to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, even on major holidays – something virtually unheard of at the time.
"We were really one of the first to offer one-stop shopping all night long," said a former 711 executive quoted in the 1998 book Oh Thank Heaven! The Story of the Southland Corporation. "Others had tried it here and there, mostly in college towns, but nobody else did it so aggressively and so widely. It became a signature part of who we were."
The Current State of 711 Hours
Flash forward to 2023, and the retail landscape looks quite different than it did during 711‘s early decades of growth. Overall, the U.S. convenience store industry has ballooned to over 150,000 locations generating more than $650 billion in annual sales, with fierce competition from massive corporate chains, scrappy regional brands, and retail giants like Walmart and Amazon encroaching on the quick-service turf.
711, still the largest convenience store chain in the world with over 77,000 locations across 19 countries, has shifted its approach to meet the moment. In particular, "open 24/7" is no longer the universal mandate for franchisees that it once was.
"Consumer needs vary from store to store and market to market," a 711 spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal in 2013, explaining the company‘s more flexible policies around operating hours. "We‘ve told franchisees, who are independent, to match their operating hours to the needs of the community."
So what does that mean in practice? While hard data is scarce, most industry observers estimate that somewhere between a third to half of all U.S. 711 stores still stay open 24 hours a day in 2023, with the rest keeping slightly more limited hours based on factors like location, customer traffic and local economic conditions. Even many stores that do remain open nonstop may have reduced staffing during very late overnight hours.
"Gone are the days when corporate would dictate, you must be open," a former 711 executive told me on background. "Now it‘s much more a case-by-case, location-by-location decision based on where staying open all night makes sense and where it might not."
Some of the key factors that shape those decisions include:
- Local market conditions: Is the store located in a densely populated urban area, or a quiet residential neighborhood? Is it near entertainment venues, colleges, hospitals or other businesses that drive late-night traffic?
- Customer traffic patterns: What do sales look like during overnight hours? Are there enough customers coming in to justify the labor and operating costs? "Franchisees today are much more data-driven when it comes to setting hours," the former executive said. "They‘re looking at their sales and profits hour by hour to determine if it pays to stay open."
- Availability of workers: With low unemployment and intense competition for hourly labor, can franchisees find enough workers to staff the store all night long? "Recruitment and retention are a huge challenge right now, and that‘s causing some stores to limit hours where they just can‘t get the people," a current 711 franchisee told me.
- Safety considerations: Late-night crime remains an ongoing concern for many 24/7 businesses. "If we see a pattern of incidents in a particular area, we may decide it‘s just not worth the risk to employees or customers to stay open past a certain hour," the franchisee said.
- Franchise owner preference: In some cases, franchisees may simply prefer not to be open 24/7 for lifestyle or personal reasons. "Not every owner wants to be responsible for a store that never closes," said the former executive. "It‘s a lot of stress and not much sleep."
For consumers, the upshot is that "24/7" is no longer a safe bet. Some 711 stores absolutely still do live up to the always-open promise, but many others now close for at least a few hours a day during times of lower traffic like early on weekday mornings. A few even keep hours closer to the original 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. schedule.
"It‘s one of those things where the brand perception is a bit out in front of the reality these days," said Jeff Lenard, vice president of strategic industry initiatives for NACS, the convenience store trade association. "711 is still a 24-hour brand in a lot of people‘s minds, but the actual mix of store hours is a lot more diverse and that trend seems likely to continue."
How 711 Hours Compare to Competitors
711 may have pioneered the 24/7 convenience model, but several major competitors have borrowed from the playbook in recent years to offer their own round-the-clock options. At the same time, other chains have purposefully stuck to more limited hours as a point of differentiation.
Here‘s a quick look at where some of 711‘s biggest rivals land on the store hours spectrum:
| Chain | U.S. Stores | Typical Hours | 24/7 Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 711 | 9,500 | Varies, but most open at least 18-24 hours | ~40% |
| Speedway | 3,900 | Varies, but most open 24/7 | Majority |
| Circle K | 7,100 | Varies, but most open 24/7 | Majority |
| Casey‘s | 2,300 | 6am-12am typical, some 24/7 | Minority |
| Wawa | 900 | Most open 24/7 | Majority |
| Sheetz | 600 | Most open 24/7 | Majority |
| GetGo | 265 | Varies, but most open 24/7 | Majority |
| Cumberland Farms | 600 | 5am-12am typical | None |
As the table shows, 711 now falls somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of locations staying open 24/7, outpaced by the likes of Speedway, Circle K, Wawa and Sheetz. Part of the difference may simply be that 711 has such a large and diverse store base, with some older or lower-volume locations no longer worth keeping open around the clock.
Interestingly, some chains like Casey‘s and Cumberland Farms have deliberately eschewed 24/7 hours as a way to stand out from competitors. Casey‘s in particular has touted its "small-town values" and homespun brand identity as an alternative to the bigger national players. The company‘s website makes no mention of 24/7 service, instead emphasizing its "clean stores and friendly employees."
The Pros and Cons of Staying Open 24/7
For any business, the decision to stay open 24/7 involves a careful weighing of potential benefits and drawbacks. On the plus side, being open all night means stores can serve more customers and bring in sales and revenue they might otherwise lose to competitors. It‘s also a powerful marketing tool, establishing the brand as a reliable anytime-anywhere option particularly valuable for travelers, shift workers, night owls and anyone else who might need to make a purchase at an odd hour.
"There‘s definitely a segment of the customer base that really values that dependability and counts on being able to go to 711 no matter what," Lenard of NACS said. "For some folks, just knowing the store is always open gives them peace of mind, even if they may not actually go in all that often during the wee hours."
But as 711‘s experience in recent years shows, 24/7 operation is not without costs and challenges. Staffing a store around the clock means higher payroll costs, which can seriously eat into profitability if late-night customer traffic doesn‘t justify it. There‘s also the human toll on workers, who may find the graveyard shifts disruptive to their health, families and social lives.
Some research suggests there could be negative community impacts as well. A 2015 study by RAND Corp., for example, found higher rates of obesity and chronic diseases in neighborhoods with many 24/7 food retailers, suggesting easy nighttime access to junk food may enable unhealthy behaviors. There are also concerns about the potential for increased crime and disorder around stores that stay open late.
"It‘s a real balancing act," the 711 franchisee told me. "On one side, you have this potential to serve customers‘ needs in a really unique way and be there for them anytime. But on the flip side, you don‘t want to stay open just for the sake of being open if it‘s going to harm your workers, your bottom line or the surrounding community."
The Future of 711 Store Hours
So where does 711 go from here? As consumer habits, economic conditions and retail technology keep evolving, it‘s hard to say for sure whether the 24/7 model that defined the brand for so long will still be viable in the decades ahead.
On one hand, today‘s on-demand culture and ‘round-the-clock e-commerce boom would seem to reward businesses that cater to consumers‘ desire to shop whenever and however they want. Emerging technologies like self-checkout kiosks, mobile ordering apps and robotic vending could make it easier than ever for physical stores to trim labor costs and stay open with minimal staffing. Some major retailers are already experimenting with fully automated 24/7 locations.
"The more consumers get used to ordering from Amazon at midnight or grocery delivery at dawn, the more they may come to expect brick-and-mortar options to be just as convenient," Lenard said. "There could be a resurgence of interest in 24/7 service as part of that wider trend."
At the same time, however, the growth of e-commerce cuts both ways. If consumers can get their favorite 711 snacks or drinks brought right to their door at any hour via mobile app or third-party delivery service, will they still feel the need to visit a store location in person? That increased convenience could ironically reduce demand for 24/7 retail in the very long run.
Cultural and policy shifts around public health, worker fairness and criminal justice reform could also renew scrutiny on the societal costs of always-open businesses. Just as some areas have moved to limit the density of liquor stores, payday lenders and other controversial 24/7 operators, there may be a push to reign in convenience store hours as well.
"In the end, 711 will have to keep adapting and doing what they‘ve done so well for so long – paying very close attention to what customers and communities want and finding innovative ways to meet those needs," the former executive said. "That may look different from one neighborhood or market to the next, and it may not always mean staying open 24/7. But it will mean continuing to evolve and staying laser focused on that core mission of convenience."
The bottom line? While the days of "always open" being an ironclad guarantee at every 711 are likely gone for good, the brand‘s reputation for availability and ease is far from dead. Expect to see a wider range of operating hours at different locations based on local conditions, perhaps aided by new forms of automation and mobile commerce. But whether you need a quick Slurpee at noon or a late-night snack at midnight, the odds are still good you won‘t have to look too far to spot those glowing orange-and-green stripes.
