I am super excited that 7-Eleven in Australia is reportedly to become more like 7-Eleven in Japan.
I grew up across the street from one of the first 7-Eleven stores in Australia, and I remember it fondly. It was closer to the Japanese model. It had a deli section and some Aldi-adjacent weirdness going on in the more obscure shelving regions. But eventually, the owner retired, and it went the way of its fellow stores, selling not much more than soft porn and ultra-processed junk foods.
Now Delicious reports that the global chain has been bought up by the Japanese outfit that made their 7-Eleven such cultural touchstones, for those of us whose culture started and stalled with late-night bucket bong runs to score hot chicken rolls and all the M&Ms.
Under the new Japanese ownership, the executive is eager to stock more food, including fresh food, drinks and daily-made goods.
What those goods will be remains to be seen, but for many Australians, the changes can’t come soon enough.
As an empire built on convenient snacks and extortionately expensive handy packs of Panadol, in Australian 7-Elevens you’re not likely to find fresh onigiri like you would in the famously brilliant Japanese 7-Elevens, or crisp baguette sandwiches that the Danes are used to. That could all be about to change.
Not fucking soon enough.