When Shawn Sedha was born, his parents didn’t go home from the hospital. They went straight to the Fremont 7-Eleven.
“This place meant so much to us,” Sedha said. “This was, for them, the American dream.”
For more than 30 years, the Bhamipuri family ran the 7-Eleven at 304 N 36th St. It’s a store that became a neighborhood fixture and a family institution.
On June 2, they handed the keys to a new owner.
Ron Bhamipuri bought the franchise in 1995 for $30,000. He had emigrated from India years earlier with next to nothing, worked odd jobs, and saved up while working at a 7-Eleven in California. He saved enough to buy the Fremont 7-Eleven store, and built the business with his wife, his son, his three daughters, and extended family.
All four kids went to B.F. Day Elementary and Bhamipuri used to invite the kids’ classes down for Slurpees. “Some people still know me from that,” Sedha said.
Sedha grew up fielding questions from neighbors about everything happening in Fremont. “It’s kind of like a little radio station,” he said. “We get all the gossip. We know what’s going on, who’s going where.”
But the work was nonstop. No vacations, no weekends, 12-hour shifts. Bhamipuri, now 73, spent 60 years in the workforce. Doctors have told him his body can’t take much more.
Sedha, 29, put his own career on hold to help his father through the final stretch. He holds an MBA from Washington State University and works in real estate, but continued working with Bhamipuri. “He’s done so much for us,” Sedha said. “I consider it my duty to stand by.”
The decision to leave came down to family and lifestyle. Sedha has two small children, 15 months and three months old. He wants to give them the childhood he didn’t have: weekends, family time, a backyard in the suburbs.
“As an adult now, I don’t know how to live a normal life,” Sedha said. “On the weekend, you’re supposed to sit down, watch a movie. We can’t do that.” Bhamipuri pushed his son toward a different path. As he told the Seattle Times in 2023, “This kind of store is not for the new generation.”
The family’s final year at the store was especially difficult. The location was closed for half a year while the underground fuel tanks were replaced, and reopened to a fraction of its normal traffic with the parking lot still torn up. The family operated at a loss but kept prices low as a parting gesture.
“We’re not necessarily here anymore to make a profit,” Sedha said. “It’s a way of life.”
The new owner – a first-time franchisee – has taken over the store. The new fuel tanks are expected to be completed by late summer.
The Bhamipuris are leaving a stretch of N 36th Street that is itself in the middle of transformation. Redevelopment projects to the east and west of the store, including the Prometheus project at the former Harvey Funeral Home site and the Holland development on the former Ballroom block, are reshaping the corridor around them.
For Sedha, the changes reflect something broader. “Fremont went from being a community-based, everyone knew each other, everyone looked out for each other, into now a city,” he said. “It’s no longer the same Fremont that it was before.”
Bhamipuri plans to retire and focus on being a grandfather to his 10 grandchildren. With his father’s help, Sedha will turn his attention to real estate development. “Everything I know about business, he taught me,” Sedha said. “Now we need to join brains and take it to the next level.”
Watch the interview clips at https://www.youtube.com/@FremontNeighbor.
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