7-Eleven Introduces Calorie-Free Slurpee
By DAVID KOENIG
DALLAS (AP) — Slurpees have been a steady seller in 7-Eleven stores since the 1960s, but many devotees who first tasted the slushy treat as kids are grown up and worried about their waistlines.
The convenience-store company is trying to win those customers back with its first calorie-free Slurpee.
The retailer hopes that the Diet Pepsi Slurpee will attract women, dieters and diabetics who avoid regular Slurpees, which pack about 330 calories into a 22-ounce serving.
The new flavor will be launched officially at most of 7-Eleven’s 5,300 U.S. stores Friday, although it has been available in many stores for a few weeks.
The retailer sells 13 million Slurpees a month and believes it can increase that total by 12 percent to 14 percent with Diet Pepsi and a lineup of other reduced-calorie flavors. Slurpees represent a small fraction of 7-Eleven’s total sales – tobacco accounts for more than one-fourth – but about 60 percent of Slurpee buyers make other purchases.
7-Eleven has tried healthier Slurpees before. A low-calorie cherry flavor bombed in the 1990s. “The problem was we didn’t make it taste as good as a regular product,” said John Ryckevic, who manages the Slurpee category for Dallas-based 7-Eleven.
In January, 7-Eleven added flavors from Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT)’s Crystal Light line of drinks that have about one-third the calories of a regular Slurpee. A raspberry ice version has sold well, and 7-Eleven plans to introduce strawberry-kiwi in October.
But the company is pinning most of its hopes in the diet category on Diet Pepsi, which it tested in Tampa, Fla., and Detroit earlier this year.
Dietitians said the calorie-free Slurpee would be a good alternative to sugary drinks.
“People don’t realize drinks have a lot of calories, so if you drink a no-calorie Slurpee, you can quench your thirst and not gain weight,” said Ruth Frechman of Burbank, Calif.,
More than half of obese Americans consume lots of soft drinks and other sugary beverages, said Gay Riley, a dietitian in Richardson.
“I’m not sure health-wise it’s any better, but obviously the reduction in calories is going to help,” she said. “I’d rather see people drink more water.”
The no-calorie Slurpee took quite a bit of engineering. Slurpee machines are tuned to produce slush at 26 to 28 degrees, but syrup made with artificial sweeteners turned into solid ice at that temperature, Ryckevic said.
Researchers at Pepsi, a unit of Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo, worked for nearly a year until they found a combination of three non-sugar sweeteners that produced the Slurpee texture.
Still, the diet version dispenses best at a few degrees higher than sugared mixes, so 7-Eleven had to send technicians out to adjust dispensing machines in thousands of stores.
That delayed the Diet Pepsi Slurpee’s debut by a month – Ryckevic acknowledged he would have preferred to launch the product during midsummer instead of summer’s end.
But the late start might not be such a problem – the connection between climate and sales is a bit fuzzy.
Fiery Phoenix is one of Slurpee’s weakest markets, Ryckevic said, while two of the best are Detroit and Manitoba, Canada. The average August high temperature in Manitoba is 59 degrees.
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