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7-Eleven has secured liquor licenses for almost all of its nearly 60 locations in the province of Ontario to not only sell beer and wine for takeaway starting Sept. 5 but also offer in-store consumption soon after, according to the Toronto Sun.
Customers will be able to enjoy their drinks on-site with a requirement that the location has a dining section with at least 10 seats separated from the rest of the store by a meter-high wall. From noon to 11 p.m. daily, alcoholic beverages will be served alongside the chain’s regular menu of prepared food, including chicken wings, pizza, hot dogs, and sandwiches.
7-Eleven’s shift comes as Ontario’s government passed legislation to enable C-stores, supermarkets, and gas stations to begin selling alcohol starting Sept. 5. Expansion of in-store drinking is planned in other provinces for 7-Eleven as local regulations are expected to become less restrictive.
Selling beer and wine complements moves by 7-Eleven, along with Sheetz, Wawa, Kum & Go, Casey’s, and other C-stores, to upgrade their foodservice offerings in recent years to drive traffic, as traditional offerings of “cokes and smokes” have lost appeal and fuel margins have eroded. In July, 7-Eleven started serving chicken nuggets for the first time as part of its summer offerings, as well as a breakfast skillet taquito, Philly cheesesteak taquito, and personal breakfast pizza.
“We look at ourselves as a restaurant first that sells convenience store items,” Marc Goodman, 7-Eleven Canada’s VP and general manager, told CityNews Toronto. “Traditional convenience store items like cigarettes and other products have continuously declined year after year. And so as an industry, we need to go and re-shape ourselves.”
Between 2019 and 2023, C-stores' visit share relative to the other discretionary dining categories — which include breakfast, coffee, bakeries, and dessert shops; restaurants; and fast food and QSRs — climbed from 24.2% to 27.1%, according to a white paper from Placer.ai. The visit share of breakfast, coffee, bakeries, and dessert shops also increased slightly during the period.
Meanwhile, restaurants’ relative visit share shrunk from 13.8% to 11.7%, and fast food & QSRs’ share slipped from 51.8% to 50.6%.
“The continued growth of C-stores between 2021 and 2022, and again between 2022 and 2023, indicates that many diners are now embracing C-store food out of choice and just due to necessity,” the study said. “The rise of the breakfast, coffee, bakeries and dessert shops category alongside C-stores in the past five years may also highlight the current appetite for affordable grab-and-go food options. And with C-store operators embracing the shifts brought on by the pandemic and actively expanding their food options, diners are increasingly likely to consider C-stores for their portable meals and packaged snacks.”
According to the 2023 Convenience Store News Foodservice Study, 48% of C-stores currently offer in-store seating, while 38% provide some sort of outdoor dining area. Another 8% planned to add either outdoor or indoor seating this year or both. However, Pennsylvania’s Rutter’s is the only one known for securing a license to sell beer and wine for on-premise consumption.