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Comment by max937 | Hacker News Reader

I remember reading that 7/11 (popular gas station in the US) makes most of its money from purchases inside the convenience store and not gas. But nevertheless, the gas is probably the main reason why most people stop by anyway.

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EVs are likely better for C-Stores like 7/11. People will have to wait longer more likely to shop, pick up food or some smokes.

I have noticed that Wawa (mid-atlantic convenience store often paired with gas station) is starting to set up a supercharger network, sometimes even when there is no gas station already existing.

Anecdotally, I agree with your assessment that EVs will cause more purchases.

I've never spent more than 5 minutes in a 7/11 in my life.

The point of those stores is to get in and get out quickly. It's the exact opposite of an EV charging station. In fact, most 7/11 in my area enforce the 'no loitering' rule.

I don't even think that 7/11 managers want you there for more than 5 minutes.

Restaurants or shopping malls I'll stay for 2 hours regularly, and a few level 2 chargers can actually get me 50 miles of charge in that time. That's where the EV chargers should be.

But you need more real estate for the same number of customers per day, so it's a trade off.

That's the case with pretty much every gas station. The station operator's margin on the gasoline itself is pretty close to zero.

Some 7-11s are gas stations in the USA, but most aren’t, so I’m not sure how to judge this claim. I definitely wouldn’t consider 7-11 to be a popular place for gas like chevron or shell.

Do you have the stats on this? I'm always surprised to see a 7-11 that is not a gas station and I have only seen it in very dense cities.

Anecdata here, but I live in America and had no idea 7-11 gas stations even existed until reading this thread. To me it’s always only been a convenience store.

This is really interesting. Would you mind saying what kind of place you live in? Rural, suburb, or dense city?

I live in a large city on the west coast, not particularly dense, though I feel like our definitions of “dense” may differ, to me dense evokes manhattan.

I’ve traveled through most of the western (ie west of the Rockies) United States and North east as well. It’s possible I’ve seen a 7-11 gas station and just don’t remember.

Thanks for sharing. I'm similarly in a city, similarly not super dense like Manhattan. But I'm East coast and most of my travels have been up and down this coast. I wonder if the difference is regional. Of course there's the good chance I'm just not very observant and pass by non-gas station 7-11s all the time.

In my experience, as Americans we tend to under appreciate the regional differences in the US, especially with chains that are familiar to us, so I think you’re probably correct.

Dunkin doughnuts vs Starbucks, Hardee’s vs Carl’s Jr., etc.

You can poll areas via https://www.7-eleven.com/locator#

In the Seattle area, it looks like 33/100 of the 7-11s have gas. For LA, it was 1/100. For Toledo Ohio, 1/10. For Dallas Texas, 50/100 it looks like.

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