If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a spinning hot dog at 2:00 a.m., you’ve probably wondered where it all started. Most people assume the first 7-Eleven was some high-tech laboratory or a standard corporate storefront in a suburban mall.
It wasn't. Honestly, it was just an ice dock.
The real story of where was the first 7 11 takes us back to a specific corner in Dallas, Texas, during a time when "convenience" meant someone didn't have to wait for the milkman. It was 1927. The place was the Oak Cliff neighborhood.
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The Ice House That Changed Everything
Back then, the company wasn't even called 7-Eleven. It was the Southland Ice Company. People didn't have electric refrigerators in their kitchens; they had "iceboxes." You needed big blocks of ice to keep your food from rotting, and you got those blocks from local ice docks.
One of these docks sat at the corner of Edgefield and 12th Street in Dallas.
A guy named John Jefferson Green—locals called him "Uncle Johnny"—worked there. He noticed something. People would come for ice, but they’d often complain that the grocery stores were closed. In the 1920s, blue laws and strict business hours meant you couldn't get a loaf of bread or a carton of eggs after the sun went down or on a Sunday.
Uncle Johnny had a "kinda" crazy idea for the time. He asked Joe C. Thompson, a director at Southland, if he could start selling those staples right there on the ice dock.
Milk. Eggs. Bread.
That little dock at Edgefield and 12th was the world’s first convenience store. Basically, if you could "tote" it away, Uncle Johnny wanted to sell it to you.
Why Was It Called Tote'm Stores?
Before the iconic green and orange logo, the shops were called Tote'm Stores. The name was a play on words: you "toted" your bags, and as a marketing gimmick, they put actual Alaskan totem poles in front of the locations.
It sounds weird now, but it worked.
The first store stayed open 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. That was unheard of in 1927. By 1939, they had 60 locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They even started selling gasoline in 1928 because cars were becoming a thing and, well, why not?
The 1946 Rebrand: Where the Name 7-Eleven Came From
So, when did the name change?
After World War II, the company wanted to highlight their insane operating hours. In 1946, they hired the Tracy-Locke advertising agency to come up with something fresh. They landed on 7-Eleven because the stores were open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. It seems simple, but it was a revolution. Most stores still closed at 5 or 6 p.m.
What happened to the original location?
If you go to the corner of 12th and Edgefield today, you won't find a Slurpee machine. The original building was rebuilt a few times over the decades. It actually functioned as a 7-Eleven until about 1995.
Nowadays, the site houses the LULAC National Education Service Center. There’s a historical marker nearby, but the "first" 7-Eleven as a retail shop is technically gone.
Evolution and the Slurpee Era
The brand didn't stop at bread and eggs. They kept pushing boundaries.
- 1963: A store in Austin, Texas, stayed open all night after a University of Texas football game because it was so busy. The owner realized they could make money while everyone else slept. That was the birth of the 24-hour store.
- 1966: The Slurpee was introduced. Fun fact: the machine was actually invented by a guy at Dairy Queen who didn't have a soda fountain and kept his sodas in a freezer. 7-Eleven licensed the tech and gave it that famous name.
- 1976: The Big Gulp arrived. 32 ounces of soda was considered "monstrous" at the time.
Why 7-Eleven Still Matters Today
Today, the company is owned by Seven & i Holdings, a Japanese conglomerate. It’s a massive global empire with over 80,000 stores.
But it all traces back to a dusty ice dock in Oak Cliff where a guy named Uncle Johnny realized people just wanted to buy eggs after 5:00 p.m.
Practical Takeaways for Your Next Visit
Next time you're in a 7-Eleven, remember:
- Check the Address: Many 7-Eleven locations in Dallas still have "711" in their street address as a nod to the history.
- Look for the "n": If you look at the logo, the "N" in 7-ELEVEn is lowercase. There are a dozen theories why (some say the founder’s wife thought it looked more graceful), but it’s a quirk that’s been there since the 60s.
- App Savvy: Use the 7REWARDS app. Since they are now a tech-heavy Japanese-owned company, the reward system is actually one of the better ones in the retail world for getting free snacks.
If you're ever in Dallas, take a drive through the Oak Cliff neighborhood. It’s a cool area with a lot of grit and history. Standing on that corner of 12th and Edgefield, you can almost imagine the smell of the ice and the sound of someone "toting" away a gallon of milk nearly a century ago.