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Start of the company
An employee of an ice store began selling bread, eggs, milk, and other basic foods outside of the store. Thompson realized that selling products in convenience stores would be profitable and started creating convience stores around Dallsas, Texas. -
Changing the name
In 1946, they renamed the stores to "7-11" which reflected the hours they were open. Having a store open from 7 am to 11 pm was unprecidented at the time, so they wanted to advertise this to customers. -
Hits 5,000th store
During this year, 7-11 opened its 5,000th store. It then had stores all over the United States, Canada, and began expanding into Mexico. -
75th anniversary in the new millenium
In the early 2000s, 7‑Eleven focused on bringing this value to the customer and grew to 25,000 stores around the time the company celebrated its 75th anniversary. -
Investigation begins into the wages of 7-11 employees
Fairfax Media and the ABC's Four Corners program reported on the employment practices of certain 7-Eleven franchisees in Australia. The legal minimum wage in Australia is $24.69, but it was found that many 7-11 employees were being paid half that amount or even less. They were able to get away with this for a while by reporting that they were paying empoyees the legal minimum wage, but then only reported half the hours they actually worked. -
More wage scandals errupt
After the scandal broke out, the managers began paying the employees their correct wages. Unfortunately, they began asking their employees to pay back half of their earned wages back to the managers in cash. If they refuse to pay, they lose their job and are threatened with deportation. -
Investigating into the accusations
7-11 announced it would look into the wage fraud accusations and hired Deloitte to help audit the investigation. -
Resignation
Russ Withers, the Australian founder and chairman of 7-11 stores resigns. Chief executive Warren Wilmot also resigns. -
Forced to pay back wages
The Fels wage fairness panel investigating into the wage fraud scandal of 7-11 reported to the Senate employment committee that it had made 188 determinations that 7-Eleven was liable to pay workers a total of $4.36 million. It was found that workers were underpaid an average of $23,000 each.
