7-Eleven and I have a history dating back to the late 70's when my mom would drive me there after baseball practices and games to grab a Slurpee. By the time they started inserting coins into the bottom of specially marked cups, I was riding my bike to practice which meant grabbing them on my own... or with friends.
In high school and college, nachos covered in chili and jalapeños were added to my personal menu along with the extra pounds. Life was good.
But then... I grew up. 7-Eleven became more of a novelty. Something my friends and I would grab once or twice a year... usually after playing a few pickup games of basketball at the local park. By the mid 2000's, I stopped going there altogether.
A few years ago, I decided to stop by the one down the street from work to get a cup of coffee. It was a lot cheaper than Starbucks, more convenient, and believe it or not... pretty good. Starbucks took a back seat to 7-Eleven and a new tradition began.
I haven't been back since March when the pandemic started. There's a chance that my school district starts the 2020-21 school year with full distance learning. If that's the case, it might be a few more months until I go back there.
But that's okay. I still have these Slurpee discs that I've picked up over the years. I don't think any of them are actually from my childhood, but that's what memories are for.
Every year, 7-Eleven celebrates their birthday by giving away free Slurpees to their customers. However this year the promotion has been cancelled. I'm impressed with this decision since it would only encourage people to gather... which isn't really working towards the greater good. Instead, they'll be donating one millions meals to Feeding America, which is a nationwide network of over 200 food banks that fed 4.2 billion meals in 2019 to people in need.
If you have the 7Rewards app downloaded on your phone then you still can go in and redeem a coupon they gave you for a free Slurpee today or any other day this month.
Hopefully next year the world will be in a better place... and Free Slurpee Day will be back. Who knows? Maybe they'll bring back these awesome lenticular discs since our hobby is in the midst of a boom. Until then...
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
16 comments:
Forgot all about 7-11 day and free Slurpee! Sucks that it is cancelled, but it will make next year that much more special. Stay safe out there....and these discs are awesome!
Singapore has tons of 7-11's (I mean, they are EVERYWHERE), but they don't do Free Slurpee Day. (I suppose if they did it would be November 7, or as it's called there, 7 November.) Most of the 7-11s there don't have Slurpee machines, and the ones that do invariably have weird (to me) flavors such as mango or melon. I'm a Coke Slurpee man!
Anyway, since I'm in the States now, it would be might tempting to go over to my local 7-11 and get a free one if this were on, even though I've been steadfastly staying out of stores. So probably a good thing that they aren't doing it. As I mentioned on another blog, I'm thinking one of these days I'll go to a Burger King drive-through and see whether they have frozen Coke--they did last summer.
7-11 has disappeared from the upper Midwest. Not sure exactly why. So no slurpees for this guy!
We have a bunch in my neck of NJ.
I liked the mini helmets and the player cups they did back in the day. Sadly,
no 7-11's in Valdosta or Ocala.
7-11s, which used to be EVERYWHERE in Houston, are just now making a comeback a couple of decades (at least) after pulling out of the market. I was never a fan of Slurpees but I did buy them back in the day to get the player cups.
Fun fact: 7-11s in Oklahoma have never sold their slush drinks as 'Slurpees' since they are an independently operated chain that has a long-standing agreement with the 7-11 corporation, even thru the sale by Southland to the Japanese company that owns them now.
7-11 blew my mind when I visited America as a kid. Selling coffee by the litre! I've recently blogged about the Fleer cards they gave out.
https://point394.blogspot.com/2020/07/more-turquoise-tints.html?m=1
7-11 is where I bought the vast majority of my topps packs back in 1978. I wasn't much of a slurpee fan but I did go for big gulps later on as a teen.
My kids loved Free Slurpee Day! It must have slipped all of our minds because not one of us remembered It was yesterday. We now have one right down the street from us. I had hoped they sold baseball cards as I could have just walked down and picked up a pack or two on my spare time. I wish there was a way we could petition to get Topps to encourage these corner stores to start selling baseball cards again :(
So many things I missed out on as a kid because I did not know about baseball cards! My dad didn't follow baseball but loved cars. He had stacks of hot rod cardboard which I loved looking through, over and over. I still love those Slurpees but limit myself to only a couple per year.
Nice coins. I still have a few from back in the day though most of them I sent away to someone who wanted them. 7-Eleven coffee, like McDonald's, is actually very good and a fraction of the cost of that rip off place, Starbucks. Thanks for sharing all these. Brings back fantastic memories.
Great selection of players here! These discs are pretty much the 1980s in a nutshell. Slurpees, Little League, summertime.
Love those discs. Have, regrettably, not had many slurpees in my lifetime.
There are actually more 7-11s in Japan than there are in the US. In fact, the whole 7-11 business empire has been Japanese owned since 1991.
And yet....nobody in Japan knows what a slurpee is. Because the 7-11s here don't sell them. Which isn't surprising, I couldn't imagine them selling well here.
I've never seen those discs before but wow, they are awesome!!!
I love these 7-11 discs, but I only have a few of them. They look nice all together. When I was in college, I mentored these two elementary school aged boys for a few summers. Both dabbled in baseball cards. The card store near their house was in the same strip mall as a 7-11. We used to buy a few packs of cards, get a Slurpee, and sit and open the packs. Fun times.
sumomenkoman - i almost forgot about it myself. normally my friend who i teach summer school with reminds me and we grab slurpees for our TA's
brett alan - i'm a coke and cherry guy myself. i probably won't hit a 7-11 this summer... which sucks because i want to claim my free slurpee. but i'm all about playing it safe. not sure what a frozen coke is... but i might need to hit up a burger king sometime to find out
jeff b - bummer. but when you consider they kind of food they have, it's probably for the better. there aren't a lot of healthy choices when you go there. it's more of a road trip grab and bag kind of place.
the lost collector - are you going to claim your free slurpee?
johnny trading spot - i vaguely remember the player cups. don't remember the mini helmets though. i figured with the heat down in your neck of the woods, 7-11 would make a ton of money
commishbob - i'm guessing they focus on the big gulps then
jongudmund - whoa. mine doesn't sell it by the liter. it's probably a good thing though. i love coffee... but that's way too much caffeine for my body
gcrl - back in the 90's my 7-11 sold cards. haven't seen them at the one near my work though. although they did have pokemon cards last year
big tone - i'd sign that petition. i might even buy a pack or two to crack open during my prep period
acrackedbat - during the summer i'll buy maybe two a month. a lot of that happens because my friend and i buy our TA's slurpees for helping out
peter k. steinberg - yeah, i'll grab mcdonald's coffee too. although i prefer 7-ll because they have different types of creamer
gregory - yup. that's exactly what it was about. i love the 80's
nick vossbrink - you're probably better off. it's like drinking syrup. but i'm not gonna lie. when it's 90 degrees outside, they're pretty dang good
sean - wow. that's a fun fact. do the sell big gulps?
the snorting bull - that's awesome. i wonder if those two kids still collect.
Post a Comment