7-Eleven Experiments With Health-Focused Store Concept

Typically, when you find yourself in the neighborhood convenience store, you’re hankering for a Slim Jim, have a severe case of the munchies, or want to purchase a lottery ticket to strike it big. But those looking for a healthy — and perhaps even organic — bite might soon find an array of options available at their nearby 7-Eleven.

Two large convenience store brands, 7-Eleven and Wawa, have taken notice of the number of wellness-obsessed consumers in search of good-for-you snacks and have started experimenting with new products and store concepts. And you know a food category has gone mainstream when it can be found on the shelves of a convenience store.

The chain 7-Eleven, the world’s largest convenience store retailer owned by Japan-based Seven & I Holdings, is testing out wellness products in a new “lab store” concept in Dallas, not far from its U.S. corporate headquarters, with more locations to come in Washington, D.C., and San Diego. Among the selections are all sorts of gluten-free, keto-friendly, and naturally sweetened goodies, including single-serve pouches of brown rice, vegetarian tomato basil chili, and dairy-free cupcakes. The store’s iconic Slurpee is even being re-engineered into a healthy concoction filled with the likes of turmeric, cucumber, and black carrot.

Then there’s Philadelphia-based Wawa, which has more than 800 stores, mostly along the Northeast Corridor and in Florida. It’s experimenting with items like grain bowls, small-batch specialty coffee, and private-label “clean” ice cream (that is, made without artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives). The company’s test kitchen is also playing with paleo and keto recipes, along with more veggie-based options.

You can’t blame these two for trying. After all, according to the Organic Trade Association, Americans are buying about $50 billion of organic products annually, and the category is growing six times faster than the overall food market. Clearly, clean eating is on a lot of consumers’ minds.

But the question is, will offering the proverbial “something for everyone” boost the bottom line, or will it drive away the budget-conscious consumer who is simply looking to buy a quick, affordable snack without the guilt?

For feedback or news tips, reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet me @dailysuitcase.

— Laura Powell, Skift Contributor

Food & Drink

7-Eleven Looks to Broaden Its Healthy Offerings: 7-Eleven may be trying to morph into an alternative version of Whole Foods. The convenience store behemoth is currently testing out a new “lab store” concept in Dallas, which stocks healthy, gourmet products (read expensive) right next to the Twinkies and Fritos. The experiment could be a winner in food deserts, where healthy options are scarce and 7-Eleven is the only game in town. But the likelihood is that most of the stores offering healthy bites will be in neighborhoods already home to the wellness set, where the competition will be fierce. Read more here.

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Work

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Health

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Athleisure

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Beauty

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Skift Contributor Laura Powell [[email protected]] curates the Skift Wellness newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.