A popular Burnaby 7-Eleven store appears to have become a casualty of major cost reduction efforts by its parent company.
The store at Canada Way and Edmonds Street in the heart of the Edmonds neighbourhood closed permanently last Thursday."The company decided to close some stores. This is one of them," manager Rahul Sethi said. Despite being busy and in a prime location, Sethi said the store was shut down because of profitability.The Edmonds store is not alone. Multiple 7-Eleven stores in the Lower Mainland have been shuttered in recent months with no explanation from the company.On the same day the Edmonds 7-Eleven store closed, however, Seven & I Holdings, the chain’s Japan-based parent company, released an earnings report that revealed it was shutting down 444 "underperforming" stores in North America.
The move is part of cost reduction measures by the company in the face of a "challenging" first half of the year driven by plummeting cigarette sales and inflation putting pressure on mid- and low-income consumers, according to Joe DePinto, CEO of 7-Eleven Inc. In a briefing on the earnings report, he said the store closures and a debt refinancing plan would save the company $30 million in 2024.