Convenience store chain 7-Eleven announced this week that it will begin selling desktop and laptop computers from a number of its outlets.
The machines won’t actually be stocked in-store. Rather, shoppers can logo onto a 7-Eleven website, and order a model customized to their specifications.
The machines won’t actually be stocked in-store. Rather, shoppers can logo onto a 7-Eleven website, and order a model customized to their specifications.
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Which means that not only is 7-Eleven getting into the computer biz, but it also is getting into the e-commerce business, using the Internet to sell products that don’t compete with its core offerings.
In an industry where margins have been waning, especially because of increased gasoline competition, finding new and unexpected product lines that can provide incremental sales seems to make sense…though maybe we would’ve chosen a product category a little closer to home.
