In 1946 Tote’m Stores changes its name to 7-Eleven to reflect the new extended hours – 7am to 11pm, seven days a week. In 1976, Dennis Potts, merchandise manager for 7-Eleven, against his will, went with a Coca-Cola idea for a large, square bottomed 32 ounce cup.
Those initial, super large, drinks sold at 50 cents each and were gone in no time. The largest size drink at this time was only 20 ounces and it hadn’t been long since the average size drink was 6.5 ounces. 7-Eleven’s in-house creative group, the Stanford Agency, brewed up the name, had Coke change to a round bottomed cup and the Big Gulp was born.
Through the years they would have TV, Movie, Music and Sports promotions on the cups, making them more fun and even collectible. In 1986 they sold the Super Big Gulp at 44 ounces,
in 1989 the Double Gulp at 64 ounces, 2001 they had the X-Treme Gulp (cup with handle at 52 ounces and in 2008 the Team Gulp at 1 gallon. I remember when this was occurring and it was really cool and a great deal to get a huge drink. The cup holders in cars and trucks didn’t catch up to these size cups for a while.
