I did some hunting on the 7-11 corporate site (www.7-eleven.com) and found the criteria for location spaces. When we met with 7-11 reps in their new store on Welton they were cagey on what it was about our location (a 37-unit residential building) that made it desirable for them. All they would say is that they ran the demographics and the pedestrian counts and our corner hit those targets. They would not share the exact targets or demographics however. (Even though later in the conversation Mr. Heffelfinger stated their target audience is millenials. We have very few millenials living in our building or near us.)
Anyway, once I found the location criteria that they share on their public web site I thought it would be interesting to share these statistics with the larger audience. Especially since 7-11 was not willing to share these data points with us at our meet and greet.
Site Criteria (directly from http://www.7-eleven.com/Portals/2/assets/docs/urban.pdf)
Walkup Location
I. TRADE AREA DEMOGRAPHICS – We might hit this – I’m not sure. One square mile is pretty big but downtown Denver isn’t huge.
A. Very heavy density within ¼ mile radius – Minimum 8,000+ residents/workers per square mile in the trade area
B. High density worker population
II. TRAFFIC
A. 25,000 vehicles passing the site per day preferred, where applicable – I’d love to see their numbers on this because I doubt we have this much traffic.
B. Very heavy pedestrian counts – Minimum 10 pedestrians per minute passing the site – Maybe at lunch time during the week. On weekends our corner is very sleepy.
III. ACTIVITY GENERATORS – They only get 1 of these.
At least 2 of the following 3:
A. High density housing/apartments/lofts – Definitely not unless you count a 37-unit loft building high density.
B. Daytime generators such as commercial, office, bus/rail stops – There is a new 22-story Excel Energy office building that just opened although few tenants have moved in to date. The new building did have retail space available but 7-11 said they weren’t interested because they wouldn’t be able to stay open 24/7. Something they said they would be willing to negotiate with us (?).
C. Evening generators such as restaurants, theatres, bar, convention centers – Not near our building.
IV. SITE CHARACTERISTICS
A. Street level corner location preferred
B. Minimum 2,000 sq. ft. retail space with 1,600 sf of selling space
C. High visibility and excellent accessibility
D. Ability to sell beer and wine preferred – 7-11 verbally committed not to pursue the beer license and due to CO liquor laws aren’t legally able to sell wine.
E. 24 hour operation – 7-11 said they would be willing to negotiate the hours with us – we’ll have to see if anything comes out of it considering how important 24/7 is to them.
F. Ability for standard “tri-stripe” signage
G. Dedicated street parking spaces are preferred – Metered parking and paid parking lots only.
NOTE
Will need “Loading Zone”, trash enclosure area and provision for employee parking – I’m not aware that there would be any provisioned employee parking. They would have to use a pay lot.
So given that the retail space in our building only meets half of their requirements I have to ask myself “Why do they want to move in?” They are only getting half of their needs met and the community into which they are moving doesn’t want them. I’ve been monitoring crimes committed in 7-11’s across the country and I find at least one a day. (See Twitter feed on right of blog.) Usually it involves armed robbery. Not only would a 7-11 at Isbell Lofts be a danger to the Isbell residents but to anyone passing by.
And did I mention that the 7-11 reps told us they have 4 more sites planned in downtown Denver? It’s not just the Isbell Lofts residents who should be worried.
I ask you 7-11 – please go somewhere that better suits your needs and where they actually want you. (Especially considering your reps say there are no plans on closing the store already in existence just one block away.)
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