7-Eleven Ready to Play Santa for Last-Minute Shoppers

DALLAS — With the holidays fast approaching, convenience stores can be a good source for gifts, especially for customers waiting until the last second.

"Providing convenience is what we do best, and that may never be as important as this time of year when everyone is hustling and bustling toward the holiday finish line," said Rebecca Frechette, 7-Eleven Inc.'s senior vice president of merchandising.

With this in mind, the Dallas-based retailer on Monday shared 11 gift ideas for its customers: 

1. Gift cards still top the deck — According to the National Retail Federation, gift cards continue to top holiday wish lists. 7-Eleven carries an assortment of gift cards in multiple denominations and also has its own gift cards, specially designed for coffee lovers.

2. Gifts-to-go — Even more convenient than buying a gift is buying one that's already wrapped and ready to give. Featured on a special display at participating stores are eight different gifts: a touchscreen stylus and pen, mobile phone power brick emergency charger, mini-tape gun, spring-loaded bottle opener, LED digital sports band watch, retro corded phone receiver, multi-function tool, and mobile phone stand.

3. Look! up in the air — RC helicopters are making a return trip to 7-Eleven this year, with four models for all ages and budgets.

4. Run, run Rudolph — The longest-running television Christmas special about a red-nosed reindeer celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and 7-Eleven has four talking and singing limited-edition characters from the animated classic.

5. Water dance speakers — Water-filled USB stereo speakers dance to the music as water jets colored by LED lights keep the beat.

6. "Frozen," "Game of Thrones," "Walking Dead," "Minions" and "My Little Pony" — All of these things are part of Funko's Pop! cast of characters as collectible, vinyl figures.

7. (Almost) live greeting cards — First there were greeting cards with printed messages, then the annual family photo card and now, video greeting cards from Memory Tag.

8. Hop on popcorn — Decorative canisters of 7-Select gourmet popcorn clusters come in three varieties: chocolate-drizzled caramel, cranberry caramel with cashews, and almonds and English toffee with cashews and almonds.

9. Binge watch bonanza —An eclectic selection of gently watched DVDs and Blu-ray disks are for sale. 

10. Calling all shoppers — For those who have a phone on their wish list, 7-Eleven has a selection of prepaid phones.

11. You animal! — Animal hats are designed to keep heads and ears warm with style.

Along with these gift ideas, 7-Eleven also promoted seven holiday solutions that its stores deliver. They include: missing ingredients (sugar, flour, chicken broth, stuffing mix, dairy, eggs, rolls, etc.); batteries; contributions to holiday parties (tub snacks, cut-up fruit and veggies, hummus, cheese, crackers, chips, cookies, doughnuts, etc.); wine and beer; white elephant gift (ever-popular lottery ticket); firewood; and hot pizza for that busy-night dinner.

"No matter if you run out of flour, sugar or milk for a family recipe, need a last-minute present for someone unexpected, or don't have enough batteries to get that Santa gift started, the neighborhood 7-Eleven store can come to the rescue," said Frechette. "We are here for people in a hurry; a convenient place to shop for basics as well as something to make the holidays bright."

7-Eleven Inc. operates or licenses more than 10,400 stores in North America.