Convenience store chain 7-Eleven completed its biggest acquisition last year. The company bought oil-and-gas major Marathon Petroleum's (MPC) Speedway convenience stores in a deal valued at $21 billion, signaling it is ready to expand further in the U.S.
"This acquisition is the largest in our company's history and will allow us to continue to grow and diversify our presence in the U.S., particularly in the Midwest and East Coast," President and Chief Executive Joe DePinto had said in a statement.
The deal added 3,900 Speedway stores to 7-Eleven's overall network.
Seven & I Holdings (SVNDF) , Tokyo, owns and operates 7-Eleven. The retail chain operates more than 16,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada.
The deal was announced in August 2020 during the peak of the pandemic. Convenience stores performed well during the pandemic, when many people relied on them for basic necessities.
Over the years, the store chain has been steadily growing its presence in the U.S. in 2018, 7-Eleven added 1,030 Sunoco convenience stores that run stores and restaurants under APlus, Laredo Taco, Ladson Grill and Stripes brands.
Technology is a crucial sales factor for the convenience-store network. Last year the company expanded its mobile checkout feature to enable a contactless shopping experience for its customers.
Now, as the peak summer season approaches and people are traveling more and just generally returning to normal in-store buying, 7-Eleven is taking on a huge challenge: hiring enormous amounts of workers when labor is in very short supply.
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Many Positions Available. Will Anyone Take Them?
The Irving, Texas, company is hiring for 60,000 new positions at more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada as part of a National Hiring Event on May 3.
The available positions are primarily in person to handle store traffic during the peak summer season.
Over the past year, a variety of businesses, from retail chains and warehouse owners to supermarkets, delivery giants, restaurants and manufacturing, have struggled to hire enough personnel.
The world's biggest economy is facing a record labor shortage, with nearly 11.3 million positions left unfilled as of the end of January, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or Jolts report, published in March.
At 7-Eleven, available positions include both entry-level and management roles inside the store as well as support positions, various IT jobs and maintenance technicians, the company said.
"For more than 90 years, 7-Eleven has been innovating to meet customer needs, and 2022 is presenting our family of brands with more exciting growth opportunities than ever across the country," 7-Eleven's executive vice president and chief administrative officer, Rankin Gasaway, in a statement.
The company said store-associate positions will help meet the surge in summer customer traffic, both in stores and through mobile orders.
"We and our franchisees take pride in providing associates with career advancement, flexible work schedules and competitive pay, and we welcome you to come learn and grow with 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes," Gasaway added.
Separately, the world's largest retailer based on sales, Walmart (WMT), said it would hire 50,000 people to fill out store roles before the end of April.
