posted 2007/07/11 at 15:52
I'm sure that for most of the rest of you this is the day where you all go out to your nearest 7-Eleven for the free 7.11 ounce Slurpee you can get all day. Around this house, however, this day is most important for being my sister's birthday, so allow me to say happy birthday, Heather.
I'm actually not on my diet today due to a combination of it being my sister's birthday and me wanting a slice of her birthday cheesecake, and the fact that we had a half-off coupon to use at our local Papa John's. (Not that I care for their pizza all that much -- I find it strangely soup-like in some ways -- but I like it every once in a while, and that coupon was going to expire today.) Under normal circumstances I might think about heading to our nearby 7-Eleven to pick up a free Slurpee, but unfortunately that 7-Eleven closed down a few months ago. Granted, it wasn't in a particularly good part of town (at least by the standards of the surrounding area), but I always passed it on the way driving to and from UT, so I figured that it must have gotten a lot of traffic due to its sheer convenience. Ironically enough, now the closest 7-Eleven to me is right next to UT, so if I want to go there then I'd have to drive past the old store anyway. All things being equal, though, even though it's been a while since I had a Slurpee, I'm not sure I want one bad enough to drive all that way for one.
I suppose there's no use in mentioning Slurpees and 7-Eleven without mentioning the whole thing with 7-Eleven turning a few select stores into Kwik-E-Marts for the month as a promotional tie-in for The Simpsons Movie. I seem to be one of those rare people who doesn't particularly care one way or the other for The Simpsons; everyone else I know either really likes or really dislikes the show, but I've never cared too strongly one way or the other for it. I may watch a few minutes of it if I flip by it on the television (and the only times I've had my television on recently have been to watch specific shows), but it's not a show that has ever struck me as being particularly noteworthy in any aspect. I suppose its longevity kind of makes it impossible to ignore now, though, and I do think the 7-Eleven tie-in is a nice marketing touch. My question is, given that only a handful of stores have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts and that the promotion only lasts through the end of the month, are fans of the show who aren't close to any of the promotion locations making huge trips just to go to the Kwik-E-Marts before the promotion ends?
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon