7-11 Curbside Service



An early example of ordering goods while seated in comfort, and then getting the stuff delivered.
     Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 13, 2016
     Category: Business | 1940s





Comments
At those prices and that selection, you better be sitting down when you get the goods and the bill.
Posted by Virtual on 11/13/16 at 01:53 PM
Don't remember 7-11 being a dairy store. Growing up in SoCal, we did have a lot of "Dairy Stores" that would do just this, You drive up, give them your order, they collect it, bag it and bring it to you.
In '88 found out Oklahoma (especially by the KS line) had drive thru liquor stores.
Posted by GFinKS on 11/14/16 at 10:36 AM
North Carolina and (I've heard) Georgia has drive thru liquor stores. On the Outer Banks in NC the Brew Thru was a pretty popular chain at one point. Their T-shirts were as ubiquitous in Virginia and NC as In N Out shirts are in SoCal.
Posted by PupTentacle on 11/14/16 at 03:28 PM
The liquor store nearest where I live does have a drive thru, but they will only sell beer and wine, not hard liquor through it. I don't know whether that's a legal constraint or a safety measure. It's the only one I can think of that does have a drive thru, though.
Posted by TheCannyScot on 11/15/16 at 10:39 AM
Where I grew up, there was one drive-in liquor store of sorts -- you pulled into the parking lot and someone came out to take your order. It was in business when the liquor laws which prevented drive-in stores were enacted, so it got grandfathered in. It still had the high window originally used to sell beer to customers on horseback.

I loved the history of the place -- it was originally the town's ice house (thick, heavily insulated walls for storage of blocks of ice cut from the river in winter). When pop and beer started being bottled cheaply, they added it as a sideline.

There were two downsides: 1) they couldn't remodel to have a drive-up window, and the parking lot was too small to have lanes, so when you pulled in, you had to really, really hope no one pulled in behind you and decided to drink a few before leaving, and 2) when they asked for I.D., you couldn't claim you didn't have your driver's license on you.
Posted by Phideaux on 11/15/16 at 12:35 PM
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