As you may or may not have heard, in a promotional stunt to support the upcoming July 27th, Simpsons’ movie, a few select 7-eleven stores have gone through a complete overhaul. Here in the Los Angeles area, we lay claim to three new Kwik-E-Marts (Burbank, Culver City and Mountain View). I may not be that big of a Simpsons fan, but of course I had to stop by first chance I got.
They did a great job and really thought of everything. Everywhere you looked the signage was all about the Simpsons, right down to the smallest detail like the receipts and the donation collection boxes at the register. Even the trash cans had new store stickers.
Talk about marketing genius. When has another product ever taken over a nationally recognized name brand like this? I think this ad campaign might go down in marketing history.
The temporary Kwik-E-Marts are selling items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, Krusty O’s cereal, the slushy drink, Slurpee-knockoffs called Squishees, sprinkle-loaded, pink-frosted donuts and of all things, Styrofoam Kwik-E-Mart coolers. Of course, I had to try a Squishee and a donut. Can you blame me?
The place was packed, but everyone was in good spirits. Folks had their arms full of Squishees, Buzz and pink donuts, all while trying to take pictures. There were plenty of uniformed volunteers on staff to help answer any questions or to offer to help take pictures with Homer, Apu, or Chief Wiggum. I found out later that at various times throughout the day, there were lines around the building just waiting to get inside – even in our 90+ degree heat.
I had only planned to pick up a thing or two for some upcoming, teenager birthday gifts, so I kept it simple with a six-pack of Buzz cola and some fruit chews. I was hoping to pick up some Krusty O’s but they were sold out both times I stopped by. The manager, Apu (according to his name tag) assured me that there was a delivery expected any minute, but I wasn’t about to wait. I would have loved to have picked up a six-pack of Duff’s beer for my brother-in-law’s birthday, but no beer was to be found (turned out it kind of went against their PG-13 ratings, so they opted to skip it – I was kind of bummed, but oh well).
The U.S. locations where a 7-Eleven store was transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart are New York City; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Burbank; Los Angeles; Henderson, Nev.; Orlando; Mountain View, CA; Seattle; and Bladensburg, MD. For more information, check out seeyellow.com. Hurry though, the Kwik-E-Marts will only be around until the end of the month. But don’t worry about missing out on all this Simpson’s goodness, all over the US and Canada, 7-elevens will be carrying the Simpson line, pink donuts and all, until they run out (or so Apu told me – he’s such a friendly guy).
Still more photos from my visit can be found in our Flickr set.
Katy
I was hoping you would do a blog entry on this! So jealous!! Bummer about the Krusty Os.