Convenience Chain Converts Several Stores To Simpson’s “Kwik-E-Marts”
Posted July 3, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s a fine line where business meets pleasure and reality meets fiction. And one North American chain has managed to bridge both gaps. By now you know that after almost 20 years on TV, the folks behind The Simpsons are finally coming out with a feature length movie. And you’ve likely also heard that 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain located right across the continent, has decided to convert a dozen of its stores into the cartoon’s “Kwik-E-Mart,” run by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
Those stores were finally unveiled over the weekend, and feature huge cut-outs of Bart and Milhouse sitting on top of the building with a sign that mimics the chain’s trademark colour scheme but reads “Kwik-E-Mart”. Other characters are represented inside. And products from the show, ranging from Squishees and Buzz Colas to Krusty-O’s, are on sale even in outlets not taking part in the conversion.
All of which is putting smiles on the movie marketers’ faces – they’re not paying a cent for the promotion which is being borne completely by 7-Eleven. Company officials estimate they’re shelling out “millions” for the makeshift renovations. But the chain believes it’s worth the money. “We thought if you really want to do something different, the idea of actually changing stores into Kwik-E-Marts was over the top but a natural,” explains Bobbi Merkel of FreshWorks, which handles advertising for the convenience stores. “It shows they get the joke.”
It’s a bizarre twist on the growing practice of product placement, which sees companies pay to have their products shown on screen in TV shows and movies. But in this case, it’s non-existent products going on sale in real stores – something that seems only appropriate for TV’s most bizarre and longest running comedy series.
The promotion is only scheduled to last about a month. The movie opens on July 27th. But while several shops in the U.S. have made the conversion – including ones in New York, L.A., Denver and Orlando, Florida – if you want to see Canada’s one and only Kwik-E-Mart during its brief existence, you’ll have to make a long journey to get there. The sole Canuck version of the converted store is located in Coquitlam, B.C.
D’oh!
Photo credit: David McNew/Getty Images News
