As someone who remembered 7/11 commercials as a kid in Texas in in the 80s, I thought they had completely died out in the USA until I spent a summer at a university in Mexico and there was a local 7/11 which was surprisingly nice. But unless they up their game in the USA, I see all the typical gas stations we grew up with as fading due to changing standards. Buc-ee's started in a tiny Texan town where some relatives live and now stretches from Colorado to Virginia to Florida. In addition to the vast amenities, including delicious fresh barbecue and salads, they have clean bathrooms and treat employees well. There's no going back (I hope), and I'm surprised they're not in California yet, though I guess California has stuff like EddieWorld. I recognize that this leaves an opportunity for smaller gas stations to try to improve to offer good-enough service since Buc-ee's focuses on larger stores, but my hope is that the elevated standards will trickle down to forcing smaller ones to raise standards. Seems like 7/11 would be well-positioned to adopt that strategy to become that dominant smaller store, if they're paying attention.
I agree with you. I really think that big-chain gas stations need to race to the top, not the bottom. If what I usually hear is true -- that they can make some money on gas but the real profit center is inside the convenience store -- then making the stores and their offerings maximumally appealing should be a top priority.
Here in Ohio (the former(?) home of Speedway) things are looking up. We've got Casey's and Racetrac, each with generally-tidy stores and usually a decent selection of tasty, hot food. We've got Sheetz and Wawa expanding, with always-tidy stores and an outstanding selection of fast, made-to-order food. And as of April, we also have Buc-ee's: That place can be a destination in and of itself just for the brisket sandwiches and Beaver Nuggets, but the wall of hot sauce and the beef jerkey bar pull quite a lot of weight as well.
That leaves plenty of room at the bottom for the locally-owned bodega. These places are trash, there's usually no prepared food, and I do not wish to see the bathroom (ever), but they serve their neighborhoods' needs. It's easy to walk over there and buy whatever (I just got back from visiting the one down the road, in fact), and the bodega man is a genuinely-friendly dude who remembers his regular customers and is responsive to whatever they want him to stock. Despite the clear limitations, a good local bodega is a thing to be treasured.
But I don't see 7/11 making moves in that direction -- at least here in the States. They're moving so far down-market that they're approaching the bodega space, but they're doing this by shedding all of the redeeming qualities they may have once had. They're both blind and unresponsive to customer needs, and they don't care. That's all bad.
