When you walk into a 7-Eleven at 2 a.m. and grab some munchies, you'll often start wondering why the convenience store is named after after two arbitrary numbers. While we're used to the store being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there was a time when the store was only open, as you might guess, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The company's first outlets were named "Tote'm Stores" because customers "toted" away their purchases. Some stores featured genuine Alaskan totem poles in front of the store. In 1946, the chain's name was changed from Tote'm to 7-Eleven to reflect the company's new, extended hours, 7:00am to 11:00pm, seven days per week. n November 1999, the corporate name of the company was changed from

The Southland Corporation to 7-Eleven Inc. In 1946, in an effort to continue the company's post-war recovery, the name of the franchise was changed to 7-Eleven to reflect the stores' new hours of operation, which were unprecedented at the time. In 1969, 7-Eleven experimented with a 24-hour schedule in Austin Texas, after an Austin store stayed open all night to satisfy customer demand. Later on, 24-hour stores were established in Forth Worth and Dallas , Texas, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada.

Southland exited bankruptcy in March, 1991, after a cash infusion of $430 million from Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan. These two Japanese entities now controlled 70% of the company, with the founding Thompson family retaining 5%. In 1999, Southland Corp. changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc., citing the divestment of operations other than 7-Eleven. Ito-Yokado formed Seven & I Holdings Co. and 7-Eleven became its subsidiary in 2005.

In 2007, Seven & I Holdings announced that it would be expanding its American operations, with an additional 1,000 7-Eleven stores in the United States. Seven & I was the fifth largest retailer in the world in 2013, with 35,000 stores in approximately 100 different countries.