A Trip to the Kwik-E-Mart

Whether it's a slew of enormous billboards or a shrunken down plastic mold to fit inside a Happy Meal, every summer blockbuster film has to be promoted in some form to get us Americans to realize that it's "coming to a theater soon." And with The Simpson's Movie being released into theaters this summer, Fox has jumped on the promotional bandwagon in an effort to hype up the recognizable cartoon family that has been living within our televisions for several years. But this isn't a typical promotion, which is fantastic! 7-Eleven is getting a lot of customers into their stores now-a-days...and better yet they actually seem to enjoy going into the stores! At least this is what I saw when I visited one of the dozen 7-Eleven stores that was changed into a Kwik-E-Mart to promote The Simpson's Movie. I just found it to be kind of neat to see people spending longer than five minutes inside a 7-Eleven when they're not even waiting in line to pay at the cash register. In fact, I've never seen so many people in a 7-Eleven taking photographs and video taping inside a store! So what's inside these make-believe convenience stores do you ask? To be honest not too much. It's mostly just a bunch of plastic cutouts of characters from the television show, which are kinda cool but kinda not too exciting either. They do sell KrustyO's and Buzz Cola at the stores, which are products featured from the cartoon series for those who don't know. From my understanding though there's only a few 7-Eleven stores in the country that have become a "full-blown Kwik-E-Mart" so I went to visit the closest one near me in Kissimmee to check it out. Unfortunately though, when I visited the store they were out of KrustyO's and Buzz Cola, which in the long run is probably a good thing for me. I don't know if the pictures are really that great but the best part about this trip for me was seeing so many happy people in a 7-Eleven.










Here's what a Kwik-E-Mart looks like from the outside.








Here's what I look like outside...with a Kwik-E-Mart sign behind me.








Millhouse (a.k.a. The House) and Bart enjoy a refreshing Squishy while dangerously sitting above about 35 feet from the ground on a nice summer day.








Comic Book Guy enjoys a light read but enjoys a light snack even more no doubt.








Marge is off stealing more groceries again.








I was gonna say "Hi" but she was too busy stealing groceries.








A shiny Apu welcomed me into the store and demonstrated how he likes to wear his baseball caps.








Chief Wiggum wouldn't leave me alone and kept asking me if I've seen his son.








It turned out Ralph was in the store licking some expired corn dogs Apu threw out in the back.








I remember how much I used to love playing around coffee when I was a baby.








This was the best reference to the show! After seeing the freezer geezer I had a hankerin' for a chili dog.








They were all out of chili dogs and Ralph was still working on the last two expired corn dogs.








There wasn't any Buzz Cola around, which was a shame because I was ready to fill my stomach with acidic-goodness.








Chief Wiggum and I bumped into each other again so we thought we'd get a picture together to show off on our Myspace pages.








They had a few of these little print outs taped up on the walls and were kind of lame...so I only took one picture of these because I didn't want to fill up my memory card with lameness. That job is already taken by me!








Ehh....bunly.








If anyone knows how to enjoy a bunly kind of food, it's Homer Simpson.








But that jerk won't share the bunly goodness!








After spending half the day in the make believe Kwik-E-Mart I decided it was time to go, but I spotted a Squishy machine and I just HAD to get one!








Now it's time for me and my Blue Vanilla Squishy to go out and enjoy the rest of the day!








But by nightfall I felt a little strange and was SIMPSONIZED into a character after being exposed to all the promotional movie crap that has surrounded us all during the late month of July. I was fine with it though.....I really liked how my shirt came out.






Fin.