ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

Abelman, Frayne, &Schwab

On August 9, 1949, United Parcel Service of America, Inc. received a registration for their "motor vehicle delivery services for retail stores."

In the early 20th century, department stores reigned. Jim Casey and Evert McCabe saw the demand for store home deliveries of merchandise and knew that if they could supply it for multiple stores, their business would grow. The Seattle pair named their company Merchants Parcel Delivery to show their new focus, and embarked on their new mission with a humble fleet of one Model T Ford and a few motorcycles.

The department stores soon saw Merchant Parcel's value. The delivery company's expertise saved them time and money. Jim Casey became an expert in their needs, going above and beyond providing a simple delivery service. Some of his employees actually worked at the department stores to sort the merchandise to make distribution more efficient. In short, Jim Casey made sure his company became his customers' business partner.

In 1919 Merchants Parcel Delivery opened up shop in Oakland, California and changed its name to United Parcel Service. It also selected the color brown to represent it for two reasons - it was reminiscent of a Pullman railroad car, a symbol of style and first-class travel at the time, and it was less likely to show dirt.

Today, UPS serves more than 200 countries and territories and moves more than 13.3 million packages and documents through its network every day.

On August 11, 1970, The Southland Corporation received a registration for the name of their grocery stores that kept long hours:

7-Eleven pioneered the convenience store concept way back in 1927 at the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas. In addition to selling blocks of ice to refrigerate food, an enterprising ice dock employee began offering milk, bread and eggs on Sundays and evenings when grocery stores were closed. This new business idea produced satisfied customers and increased sales, and convenience retailing was born!

The company's first convenience outlets were known as Tote'm stores since customers "toted" away their purchases, and some even sported genuine Alaskan totem poles in front. In 1946, Tote'm became 7-Eleven to reflect the stores' new, extended hours - 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days a week. The company's corporate name was changed from The Southland Corporation to 7-Eleven, Inc. in 1999.

Today, 7-Eleven is the undisputed leader in convenience retailing with more than 25,000 stores operating in the U.S. and 17 other countries.