The History of Big Gulp

In 1976, Dennis Potts was working as the merchandise manager for 7-Eleven’s southern California locations. Sales were low when he was approached by Coca-Cola representatives who presented him with a case of new 32-ounce cup shaped like a circle on the bottom and a square on the top. Potts sent the roughly 500 cups to a store in Orange County. At the time, the most popular item sold at the store was a 16-ounce returnable bottle that sold for 50 cents including tax and bottle deposit fee. The new 32-ounce disposable size was offered for 39 cents and sold out in a single week. Seizing on the success, 7-Eleven rolled the new cup size out in the local area, but soon after learned that the designer of the cup, the Continental Can Company in Colorado, was moving facilities and would be unable to supply them for several months. Unwilling to abandon the lucrative new offering, 7-Eleven switched to using round 32-ounce cups like those we are familiar with today. At that point, the Stanford Agency, an in-house advertisement team, decided to introduce a logo and name for the product — and the 7-Eleven Big Gulp was born! In the early years, the drink was exclusive to the West Coast, as those were the only stores with fountain drink dispensers. However, the Big Gulp soon became so popular that 7-Eleven added soft drink machines to all of their stores by 1979. In 1981, an employee proposed a new offering — a 46-ounce cup called the Super Big Gulp. Before 1983, all 7-Eleven fountain drinks were only available through counter service, but as the Big Gulp and Super Big Gulp became increasingly popular, it was taking too long for clerks to fill the large cup sizes, so in the early 1980s, 7-Eleven added self-serve fountain drinks alongside its long-established self-serve coffee stations. (Interestingly, 7-Eleven was the first American retailer to install self-serve beverage stations!) In 1984, the company launched the 64-ounce Double Gulp, which was sold in a milk-carton-style cup just like the original Big Gulps. Today, the Big Gulp remains a popular offering among customers and is also known for kicking off the trend toward large drink sizes in America.