The first 7‑Eleven store located post-security in a U.S. airport terminal opened in late October at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (DFW).
Open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Terminal A, near Gate 25, the shop has all the usual 7-Eleven offerings as well as a special value-priced “snack pack” exclusive to the store containing a small bag of multi-grain pita chips, white cheddar cheese and salami sticks, a pouch of pitted green olives, a dried-fruit blend, thin chocolate cookies, Gummi bears and a butter mint.
While this is the first post-security 7-Eleven at a U.S. airport, it is not the first 7-Eleven convenience store in an airport.
There are pre-security 7-Eleven shops at Vancouver International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport and one at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX Airport.
If you’ve been craving a Big Gulp or a Slurpee at Los Angeles International Airport, your troubles are over.
The first 7-Eleven in a U.S. airport opened has opened at LAX – in the pre-security/arrivals area of the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
Open from 6 a.m. to midnight and designed to serve departing and arriving passengers as well as airport employees and all the people who come to the airport to meet and greet passengers, the 950-square-foot shop is stocked with magazines and newspapers, travel-size personal care products and a variety of over-the-counter medicines for motion sickness and other ailments.
This is the first in-terminal location for 7-Eleven in the U.S., but the company currently has three stores in airport plazas on U.S. airport properties near JFK, Newark Liberty and Southwest International Airport in Fort Myers, Florida.
A 7-Eleven is also scheduled to open post-security in Terminal A at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport this fall, with another in DFW Terminal E sometime in the future.
59 7-Eleven stores already operate in airports in 12 other countries, including Canada, where the world’s first airport 7-Eleven opened at Vancouver International Airport in 2001 and offers a full-service post office, a lottery outlet and a noodle stand.
The Vancouver Airport 7-Eleven participates in 7-Eleven Day each year – when customers receives complimentary small size Slurpees – but the LAX airport 7-Eleven will not be participating that very popular program.
(Photos courtesy LAX; my story about the 7-Eleven at LAX first appeared in a slightly different version on USA TODAY)
There’s currently only one airport that has 7-Eleven shop on-site – Vancouver International Airport – but the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is scheduled to get a post-security 7-Eleven by 2013.
Still, with more than 39,000 franchises worldwide, it’s a good bet you’ll find a 7-Eleven on your way to the airport.
And while you’re slurping your free Slurpee, consider these Slurpee facts:
* American Slurpees are injected with air. Canadian Slurpees are not.
* More than 40% of all Slurpee drinks are sold during the months of June, July and August.
* Winnipeg, Canada is known as the Slurpee capital of the world.
Vancouver Airport has one in the terminal, Newark airport has one on airport property, but Dallas-Fort Worth Airport is slated to get what is being billed as the first 7-Eleven inside the secured gate areas at an airport.
The first secure-side 7-Eleven will be one of several new concessions that are part of a remodel going on in Terminal A, but come 2013, travelers will be able to sip slurpees between flights and take Big Gulps with them onto the airplanes.
