IRVING, Texas, U.S. – Get ’em while they’re hot … and cold! 7-Eleven, Inc. is offering limited-edition cups for each of its signature proprietary beverages – Slurpee®, Big Gulp® and coffee – that include a year of free beverages.
Available exclusively on the convenience retailer’s 7-eleven.com website* for a one-day sale starting Dec. 11 at 12 p.m. EST, the 20-ounce coffee and Slurpee cups and 30-ounce Big Gulp cups are stainless-steel Tervis tumblers. Each branded cup has a unique design and comes in a gift box.
Purchasers can get unlimited refills of their favorite 7-Eleven beverage in its corresponding cup from January 1, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020. Suggested retail price is $129.00 – the more you fill it up, the more you save!
“This a first for 7-Eleven. These limited-edition stainless steel, vacuum insulated cups are a cut above our standard everyday cups and are designed to be collector’s items,” said Rebecca Troutman, 7-Eleven Director of eCommerce. “All of our 7-Eleven beverages have enthusiastic fans who are regulars at our stores – some daily or even several times a day. This is taking limited-edition to the extreme. Only 50 of each design will be sold on our website through the Shop Online button. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
The cups are not interchangeable and only come with free refills for the 7-Eleven beverage indicated on the cup.** At checkout, 7-Eleven employees will scan the unique code printed on the cup, which will ring up the beverage as free.
With three iconic drinks, 7-Eleven has long been an American beverage destination and innovator in the category, responsible for many firsts. Here are a few:
Coffee
7-Eleven stores’ proprietary beverage business all started with coffee, which remains the company’s top-selling self-serve drink. In 1964, 7-Eleven became the first retailer to sell fresh-brewed coffee in to-go cups. Until then, coffee-lovers could only enjoy a fresh-brewed cup of coffee at home or in a restaurant. 7-Eleven first tested coffee in to-go cups with New York’s coffee-loving Long Islanders.
By the late ’60s, hot-to-go coffee was available at all U.S. 7-Eleven stores. It was an instant success because customers liked customizing their coffee – choosing cup size, regular or decaffeinated, and sweeteners and creamers to suit their tastes. Today, 7-Eleven offers many more hot beverage choices and well over half of its freshly brewed coffee is sustainably sourced and Rainforest Alliance Certified™.
Slurpee
While coffee in to-go cups was hot news in the 1960s, 7-Eleven had discovered another beverage phenomenon – the frozen soft drink. The retailer’s iconic Slurpee drink got its start when a 7-Eleven employee saw a frozen drink machine and thought it had great sales potential. The company invested in three machines and tested the product in the fall of 1965. The new frozen beverages caused such a sensation, the company immediately ordered 100 more units.
7-Eleven stores’ in-house advertising agency created the Slurpee name during a brainstorming session when agency director Bob Stanford commented that it made a “slurp” sound coming through the straw. “The first time I heard that sound through a straw, it just came out ‘slurp’,” Stanford said. “We added the two e’s to make a noun. It was just a fun name and we decided to go with it.” By spring 1967, the machines were in almost every store and a crazy cross-country ad campaign cemented the beverage’s quirky brand personality.
Big Gulp
When 7-Eleven introduced the 32-ounce Big Gulp in 1976, it was the biggest cup on the market. The original milk carton-shaped Big Gulp cup nearly doubled the company’s fountain business overnight. Later, when the stores switched from the gable-topped cup to a more traditional cup, customer sales remained strong, showing that size and value sold Big Gulp drinks, not a novelty cup.
As with coffee, fountain drinks were served by clerks behind counters. Introduced in West Coast stores in 1976, the first 7-Eleven fountains were behind the counter and operated by store employees. 7-Eleven was the first retailer to offer self-serve fountain drinks, testing them in 1983 before rolling them out to all its stores.
*Purchases are limited to one cup per order.
*The 20-ounce coffee cup can be filled with other hot beverages such as hot chocolate and lattes. The 30-ounce Big Gulp cup can be filled with any soft drink or brewed iced tea.
