As for convenience stores 7-11 is the largest 'Konbini', convenience store chain in Japan. "Today the convenience store is said to be a six trillion yen market. Seven-Eleven is the largest convenience store chain in Japan with 1,200 stores in Tokyo and over 8,000 in urban areas throughout the country."

The company has its origins in 1927 in Dallas, Texas, when an employee of Southland Ice Company, Joe C. Thompson, started selling milk, eggs and bread from an ice house.^[9][10] The original location was an improvised storefront at Southland Ice Company, an ice-manufacturing plant owned by John Jefferson Green. Although small grocery stores and general merchandisers were present in the immediate area, Thompson, the manager of the ice plant, discovered selling convenience items, such as bread and milk, was popular due to the ice's ability to preserve the items. This significantly cut back on the need to travel long distances to the grocery stores for basic items. Thompson eventually bought the Southland Ice Company and turned it into Southland Corporation, which oversaw several locations which opened in the Dallas area. Initially, these stores were open from 7 am to 11 pm, hours unprecedented in their length, hence the name. The company began to use the 7-Eleven name in 1946

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