STORY:
Convenient Champagne

7-Eleven bottles bubbly for New Year's Eve partygoers in a hurry

You’re all dressed up ready to party this New Year’s Eve, but you’re missing one thing, the champagne. Not to worry you can pick up a bottle of bubbly at that convenience store on the corner.

7-Eleven stores across the country are ready for all of you procrastinators out there. The neighborhood store is importing its own sparkling wine. The champagne is coming from France to the store on the corner of your block. Mieux sparkling wine will available at most stores just in time for the New Year. It should sell for abut $6.99 a bottle.

"Half the champagne sold each year is purchased during the last six weeks from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve. And with the millennium this year, eight in 10 people say they plan to have a glass of champagne New Year’s Eve, twice the number of a typical New Year’s Eve. What better time to introduce our own champagne?" said Dennis Phelps, 7-Eleven’s beer and wine manager.

7-Eleven has been trying to break into the wine selling business for a while now. Most wine sold is sold in supermarkets not in convenience stores. However, convenience stores account for the majority of beer sales. 7-Eleven is trying to transfer its successful beer sales into wine sales, and decided to give their sales a boost by providing champagne for last-minute shoppers.

Just this past March 7-Eleven began selling two red wines produced especially for 7-Eleven stores. The champagne will take the store into the white wine business. The stores will also sell a Chardonnay next to the champagne. The convenience chain is hoping the New Year partygoers will put their store on the map for wine shopping in the future.

DATE: 12/2/99

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