This probably seems odder to you than it does to me. When I was running a group of 7-Eleven stores in Miami, two of my stores were literally back-to-back. The trick was, of course, that one of the stores was on US 1, and the other was on the bend of a smaller neighborhood road that turned away from US 1 without ever connecting. Both stores were successful, but I didn’t keep the neighborhood store open 24 Hours, because it was possible (albeit not very convenient) to drive from one lot to the other, and nobody would have given you any grief about doing that at 2 AM.
California’s newest Trader Joe’s is across the street from a Trader Joe’s
Here we had three Starbucks that were literally a stone’s throw away from each other. Well, maybe a baseball throw away. But it’s the downtown area and there are big streets between them, so they are all busy at various times.
Yup, even in my rinky-dink town we have two Starbucks on the same road, separated only by the pylons of the elevated interstate. I could hit a pitching wedge from one to the other, although a wild shot could kill someone on the overpass.
The wildest example I’ve ever seem of something like this was in Oslo, where you could stand in one spot on Karl Johann’s Gate and see many, many Narvesen stores – almost one per block. Narvesen is sort of a cross between a convenience store and a newsstand. Their stores look like the Hudson News outlets you see in major airports. There must be about 150 or them in Oslo, so those Norwegians must read a lot and eat a shitload of candy if they need a Narvesen every two blocks.
Reminds me of the line from Best in Show “We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.”
yes! that’s where my mind went
Supposed Starbucks and McDonald’s do sophisticated optimization research to pick their locations, even if it results in seemingly duplications. I heard that some companies go so far as to wait for announcements from one of them that they are opening a new location, and then consider finding a nearby spot.
Not 7-11 but I remember being driving in Florida driving on a desolate section of 41. No other businesses for miles or houses. Coming upon a Circle K store. On my side of the road. On the other side of the Road was another circle K and I could see in the distance another Circle K. So I could see 3 circle K’s and they were the only 3 buildings I could see. That was 20 years ago but I still remember it because it seemed crazy.
35 or 40 years ago there was a small 7-Eleven on Tierra Verde Fl a mile before the entrance to Fort Desoto state Park. It was in the top 10 stores in the country. They did very well so another store opened a mile up the road. on the small island. It just split the business and between the stores, It didn’t increase the business since it was a captive market. Didn’t make sense. Eventually they closed the old one. The thing was I don’t believe they had the same owner so why would they franchise a competitive store next to one of their most productive stores and hurt the owner.
In my day, the 7-Elevens in Florida were all corporate outlets except for about ten on Miami Beach. That would be the same era that you’re talking about. The Tampa Bay area was 100% corporate. (So probably no franchisee. It still sounds like a bad decision.)
That was just barely out of my territory. Before I moved to the corporate HQ in 1982, I was in charge of Southwest Florida, which stretched from Naples and Marco up to Sarasota/Bradenton.
Good to know. that make sense.
I lived a block from here for the last 9 and a half years. Supposedly they were forced to renew the lease on the existing location before the new location opened.
So, yes, they plan to keep both stores open, but only until the lease on the old location expires.