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| Today's post highlights Shelby County, TN, retail. |
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2024 is treating you well so far!
I wasn't able to get a post out following my November Dyersburg Gordmans entry, so I hope you all had a great holiday season in-between then and now. As usual, I expect the blog to continue to stay fairly quiet during the coming few months due to my job, but I hope to return in the spring with some more new content. And today, kicking us off for the year, we've got some fresh vintage photos from our contributor, Mike B.!
Mike has provided content to the blog before on a few separate occasions, but perhaps most notable are his 7-Eleven photos and historical information. Mike has a large collection of photos of Mid-South gas stations, many of which are no longer standing or have long since changed affiliation. As more of a big box store documentarian myself, I find it fascinating to see these insights into a different aspect of retail photography and history, especially with the vintage imagery. The Sing Oil Blog has plenty of such photos and information as well, so if this sort of stuff interests you, I encourage you to check that site out!
Mike's previous 7-Eleven posts can be seen at the following links:
- January 2019 -- Contributor Post: Memphis Area 7-Eleven Stores
- November 2020 -- Contributor Post: Memphis Area 7-Eleven Stores, Part 2 (The Mapco Takeover)
In a comment on one of those posts, a user asked if there was once a 7-Eleven on Rockcreek Parkway in Cordova. Mike responded that yes, there was, and sent in the below photo of the store:
Per Mike, 7-Eleven #16305 was located at 8245 Rockcreek Parkway in Cordova. This store was not a standard design (as you can probably tell!) and was part of the Countrywood Development. This store operated as an independent store for years after 7-11 left Memphis. The best part is that they never covered up the 1970's interior graphics package, which had a photo (among others) of a grandma and grandchild drinking a Slurpee together.
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| Courtesy ClickAmericana |
Mike shared this link, which has plenty of images of the 1970s interior decor, including the example above. The Rockcreek 7-Eleven has long since been demolished, and is now just an empty plat of land.
While searching for that Rockcreek store photo, Mike also came across a handful of additional "lost Memphis" 7-Elevens to share with us. Up first, located at 3815 Elvis Presley Blvd, this is former 7-Eleven #22144, which was renamed appropriately King Mart. Located almost directly across the street from Graceland, the land is now part of Graceland Property. It was demolished sometime in 2009, per Google Street View imagery.
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| Courtesy Richmond Times-Dispatch |
Mike continues, I remember the 7-Eleven interior was gone, but there were remnants of both 7-Eleven and Mapco in plain sight when I visited. The most memorable thing was "The Works"- 7-Eleven's fresh toppings bar was still intact including a raised plastic sign - but instead of fresh toppings it had a few sad packs of ketchup laying around. I found the above image online of an example of what "The Works" looked like back in the day.
This next picture takes us to Sam's Highland Street Market - Formerly located at 628 S. Highland in Memphis, this was at one time 7-Eleven # 12850 and is now the location of a McDonald's restaurant. This building was demolished sometime between 2015 and 2016. I remember seeing other Sam's Z Markets around the Memphis/DeSoto County area, but I'm not sure if any of them are still open today.
Just across the street from the former 7-Eleven on Highland is this other gas station, a BP-affiliated Circle K convenience store at the time Mike's image was taken, located at S. Highland and Southern Avenue. This station is still open, but is now Circle K-branded for its gas as well.
We jump to Nashville for this final shot, showing what must have been an early Circle K gas and C-store combo location at 2200 Nolensville Road and Glenrose Avenue. Mike's comment on this and the previous image is that they were his attempts at Circle K art, with the big sandwich billboard in the first photo and the old Buick in this one. I like how both images turned out!
Circle K-branded gas stations are definitely taking over these days -- the Shell station that I grew up with on Commerce Street in Hernando is now strictly a Circle K, as are a number of formerly Shell-affiliated stations across DeSoto County. Even the Mapco in Olive Branch that I referenced back in Mike's second 7-Eleven post has since converted to Circle K. We have a number of Circle K-only stations here in the Jackson area as well, including one that I pass every morning on the way to work (incidentally, itself a former Sing Oil station!).
It's always funny to me to see the "Easy Pay" price on the Circle K signs, as that makes me think of QVC's Easy Pay! Apparently the Circle K Easy Pay card is similar to any gas brand's credit card, except that it is connected to your debit account but can be used only for Circle K transactions with a specific PIN, therefore protecting your account. Seems like a useful concept, plus it can save you 10 cents per gallon as well. Maybe I should look into that one of these days...
Anyway, that's it for this post. I hope you enjoyed seeing more of Mike's photos -- thanks again to him for sharing those with us! As always, if you have any photos and/or posts you'd like to share, our inbox is always open for contributions at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com. Until next time, thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!
Retail Retell
Happy New Year to you and the MSRB contributors and readers! I know Sing Oil has discussed the Circle K-ification of his area and it appears the same is true in your area. Well, here in Houston, C-stores are popping up all over the place. Many of them are no-name type operations which are a bit shady in these sense that they have video poker machines and drug accessories in their stores, but we saw many stores, mostly old Valero locations which were former Stop-N-Gos, converted to Circle K a few years ago and currently 7-Eleven is on a new construction binge in the Houston area as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is all pretty odd because Circle K and 7-Eleven were both in Houston, and quite prominent, until around the 1980s/early 1990s (both companies were founded in Texas) when both companies left Houston perhaps due to the strength of Stop-N-Go and the large number of corporate-owned C-stores from the major gas brands. Now, both have come back to Houston as if they never failed here initially!
One thing I remember about Circle K and 7-Eleven in the 1980s are their video rental 'departments'. We've never really been C-store shoppers aside from buying auto fuel, but those video rental departments did lead to us shopping at those stores more often. Of course, that is all now a thing of the past outside of maybe Redbox if these stores have those machines.
That vintage 7-Eleven interior photo is really something! Around the 1970s, C-stores really started transitioning from being mini-grocery stores targeting mothers mostly to stores targeting men with, well, junk food. This 1976 news clip from Dallas talks a little bit about that, but I've read some other stuff about the subject. Anyway, it's a neat little video anyway! These collections of old Dallas news clips are truly great! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK7YsLyH50w
Thanks, Happy New Year to you as well! I guess it's good to have variety in that not every C-store popping up in Houston is a Circle K, but yeah, those no-name ones sound a bit seedy for sure. And it is kind of funny how both Circle K and 7-Eleven have come full circle in the market!
DeleteI've never been a C-store shopper either, not even going inside to pay for gas, since I have a Shell credit card. That's largely why I'm unfamiliar with so much of this aspect of retail, although I do enjoy learning more about it from those who are knowledgeable. Video rental departments at a C-store certainly sound like a strange thing, but I guess videos were anywhere and everywhere for a period of time! Plus you make a good point about Redbox effectively being similar. Neat news clip, too -- love seeing all that vintage packaging!! Pretty wild to think C-stores were once competitive to supermarket prices (on some items, at least)... who knows, maybe that's still the case, but I've always looked at C-stores (and places like Dollar General, for that matter) is being overpriced where unit prices are concerned.
What a cool and unexpected post! As expected, I love seeing vintage gas station photos and I appreciate all of the links! Mapco recently sold a number of stations to Circle K, but I'm not sure all of them were part of the deal. I recently took a trip through North Alabama and saw at least three Mapco stations still bearing the name, but many more with temporary Circle K banners and new Circle K-issued Gilbarco pumps.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Circle K, I believe I touched on Circle K's recent push to eliminate third-party gas brands in my post on the Tallahassee #7 Sing. The thing that is intriguing about the Mapco acquisition isn't the raw station count increase, but instead the purchase of Mapco's logistics fleet. I'm convinced that the primary reason Circle K purchased Waycross, GA-based Flash Foods several years back was to inherit the company's Fuel South Express gasoline transportation fleet, and it seems like this most recent buy will bolster Circle K's shipping abilities across the Southeast. It's hard to sell your own gasoline at lower prices if you don't have a way to transport it!
I also remember touching on the Easy Pay system and how I was much more reluctant to giving Circle K direct access to my checking account, lol!
As for convenience store prices, you're right that they tend to me much more expensive on a unit price basis than conventional supermarkets. That wasn't always the case, though, as I remember reading an old Newspaper article where Sing was trying to stay competitive with Publix in Tallahassee (and dismissing Albertsons as being unreasonably cheap).
I'm also looking forward to a post on the Jackson #3 Sing!
Glad you enjoyed it (and you're welcome)! Thanks for the reminder of that post where you covered the Circle K info. Mike also emailed me after writing this post with a link to an article discussing the Mapco sale. That one totally slipped under my radar! Here is the link: https://csnews.com/mapco-express-officially-split-between-two-new-owners
DeleteYour theory about Flash Foods certainly makes sense to me. And yeah, I'd be hesitant to give my checking info to Circle K as well, but at least this way seems better protected than straight up inserting your debit card into the pump!
Crazy (and sad) how much that level of competitiveness has fallen off in recent years. And yeah, I'm looking forward to writing the post as well, haha!
Circle K has been converting stations to their house brand here in NC as well. When they first bought out Kangaroo, a lot of the Marathons and Citgos that had Kangaroo were converted to either BP or Exxon/Mobil. Around 2020, all of the BP locations had converted, with Exxon, Shell, and Mobil locations converting around 2022/2023.
ReplyDeleteSounds about right! Also, good to hear from you!
DeleteI have fond memories of the 7-Eleven on Highland. In the summer of 1974 when I was 8, we went two months without a washing machine so we went to the Loeb's Coin Op across the parking lot. I'd walk over to the 7-Eleven and get a Slurpee and a comic book.
ReplyDeleteThe Circle K at Highland and Southern was a Majik Market in those years. Majik was an Atlanta chain owned by Munford which at one time was the second larget C Store chain in the U.S. But 2nd in those days wasn't even half the size of 7-Eleven.
There was also a Super Drive In a block to the south on Highland where a Family Dollar is now. SDI was a Nashville chain that also had a hand full of stores in Memphis. They sold all their stores in about 1981 to I believe National Convenience, the Stop N Go chain.
Thanks for sharing! That's a lot of great information. Cool, too, that you have such a connection to the 7-Eleven on Highland -- that's unfortunate about the washing machine, but otherwise a neat story!
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