7-Eleven this week announced the release of 7NOW Pins, a program that works within the company’s existing 7NOW app and will deliver to so-called alternative locations like park benches and beaches.
Inside the 7NOW app, customers can choose from designated Pins on a map and arrange for their order to be sent to that location instead of a traditional house or apartment. Right now, Pins include parks, beaches, and stadiums, among them places like Central Park, LA’s Venice Beach, and Fenway Park in Boston. The idea is to make delivery of snacks, pizzas, slurpees, and whatever other convenience store fare customers might crave available wherever they happen to be.
There’s no minimum order required to use the 7NOW app or Pins program. Rather, all customers are charged a flat delivery fee of $3.99. For orders under $15, an extra $1.99 is applied.
It’s not unlike Domino’s Hotspots, which debuted about a year ago with the same concept: deliver food to customers who are out at the beach, the park, or some other non-residential location. The concept got generally positive reviews.
Since 7-Eleven’s convenience store offerings tend to go hand-in-hand with beach hangouts (how many times have you forgotten ice at a picnic?) and frisbee games in the park, 7NOW Pins should perform well at least initially. Like Domino’s, 7-Eleven’s mobile app offers a pretty streamlined ordering and checkout process, which will be key moving forward. As delivering to public spaces becomes more commonplace, the real differentiator for companies will likely not be where they can deliver the goods, but how fast.
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