7-11, ATMs and market research

Reading about 7-11 in today's newspapers reminded me of a funny story told by a market research coordinator who has run some focus groups for my department.

In the last couple of years, my company has hosted some market research in the form of focus groups. Since I was technically the client, I got to listen in on the discussions. This isn't always a good thing; one smarty-pants dismissed my copy as "meaningless rhetoric" during a focus group about corporate branding, and I was sore about it for days.

Anyway, back before you could find an ATM every ten feet, there was a lot of research being done by grocery stores who wanted to install an ATM but weren't sure if they were worth the investment. Since 7-11s are open 24 hours, their owners, Southland Corporation, were particularly keen to try out the ATM concept. But at first they decided some market research was in order, so they called in the focus groups.

The first focus group participants were from Oak Cliff, home of one the first 7-11 stores. It's part of Dallas with some very upmarket areas and some equally scary ones, so the focus group was made up of an interesting mix of people.

One of the first questions asked by the group coordinator concerned the 24-hour availability of cash. Did anybody really need to get hold of $200-300 at 3:00 a.m. in the morning? Some of the focus group members looked at the coordinator as if she were crazy.

Then one sighed and said, "Well, hell, yeah - bail money."