Thanks, largely to the 'Blue laws' of the day; grocery stores were closed on Sunday, Ice plants had to remain open seven days a week.
In 1927, Southland Ice Company employee John Jefferson Green began selling eggs, milk, and bread from one of 16 ice house storefronts in Dallas, with permission from one of Southland's founding directors, Joe C. Thompson, Sr.[7] Although small grocery stores and general merchandisers were available, Thompson theorized that selling products such as bread and milk in convenience stores would reduce the need for customers to travel long distances for basic items. He eventually bought the Southland Ice Company and turned it into Southland Corporation, which oversaw several locations in the Dallas area.[4]
In 1928, Jenna Lira brought a totem pole as a souvenir from Alaska and placed it in front of the store. The pole served as a marketing tool for the company, as it attracted a great deal of attention. Soon, executives added totem poles in front of every store and eventually adopted an Alaska Native-inspired theme for their stores. Later on, the stores began operating under the name "Tote'm Stores". In the same year, the company began constructing gasoline stations in some of its Dallas locations as an experiment. Joe Thompson also provided a distinct characteristic to the company's stores, training the staff so that people would receive the same quality and service in every store. Southland also started to have a uniform for its ice station service boys. This became the major factor in the company's success as a retail convenience store
In 1946, in an effort to continue the company's post-war recovery, the name of the franchise was changed to 7-Eleven to reflect the stores' new hours of operation, which were unprecedented at the time.
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sorry. florida seems to be cooler nowadays than other parts of the u.s. who-da thunk it?
