Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

First things first, I recognize that the post is very late. I'll blame it on our VBS which was held earlier this week, although the truth of the matter is that my actual time at VBS was fairly limited, while I have spent most of my week reading back issues of Avengers Comics.

So, you might not have heard, but there is a movie coming out based off of the Simpsons animated TV show. I've always enjoyed the show personally, although I know that there are some of you opposed to it (for what reason I'm not sure). Where Kent last week mentioned the theological significance of Nacho Libre, I tend to see theological importance in many episodes of The Simpsons, and have even used part of an episode in a class at VRCC. For the record, my opinion is shared by at least some others in the world. Anyway, all of this is to say that I am looking forward to the release of the movie on July 27th.

As much as I am anticipating the release of the movie, I am already enjoying some of the pre-release marketing. In conjunction to the release of the movie, a handful of 7-Eleven's in the United State's have been transformed into the Simpsons' equivalent of the convenience store chain, The Kwik-E-Mart. One of the really nice things about living in Lewisville is that we are close enough to visit Dallas, where one of those stores appeared. More than anything, I'm impressed by the effort that was put into the redesign. They actually repainted the outside of the store (or put up a faux wall, which is no easier to create) as you can see from the pic above.

As you can see, just like everything else, the Kwik-E-Mart charges just a little bit more for its gas.

The whole store is an homage to various episodes of the series, such as this exhibit, where one of the tirtiary characters, Jasper, gets locked in the Kwik-E-Mart freezer, only to be woken a few minutes later believing that he has been cryogenically frozen and is now thirty years in the future.

As well as this sign. I'm not sure if you can read it, but it lists a number of candies that are not sprinkles, which is an almost exact recitation of a line that the Kwik-E-Mart manager, Apu, delivers to Homer when he tries to buy a suspiciously candy laden donut. Speaking of donuts . . .

In addition to increased signage, the Kwik-E-Mart's are offering four Simpsons themed items for purchase. The first are special Simpsons style donuts, complete with pink icing and oodles of sprinkles. Although I tend to turn my nose up at Donuts unless they come form Krispy Kreme, I have to admit that these were very good.

Two of the other Simpsons styled items are above. Frosted KrustyO's, sadly, is nothing but Fruit Loops, but the packaging is pretty nifty. I haven't tried the Buzz Cola yet because I'm saving it for my birthday party to see if it is as good as Moxie Cola. The last item, the Slushie, is just a renaming of 7-eleven's typical slurpee, so I didn't get a picture of it. I am, however, now addicted to the "Blue Vanilla" flavor slurpees / slushies.


Here we find one of the Kwik-E-Mart's most reliable customers, Marge Simpson. The store was littered with these 3-D versions of popular characters from the series. Sadly, I was unable to get a picture of my favorite one of these, Comic Book Guy. He was positioned on the outside of the store during my first trip, but before I came back with my camera, someone had taken him. On a related bit of trivia, Comic Book Guy was originally going to be named Louis Lane, which would have been awesome, but apparently the name didn't take.


Alright, here is a special reward for Joanna if she made it this far in the post. Jennifer saw this on the outside of the Kwik-E-Mart and broke into hysterical laughter. Apparently, it's a math joke.