7/11 Day 2024 DRINK FREE SLURPEES UNTIL YOU PUKE

[stethacantus]

I'm getting too old for this shit.  Originally when I started doing this a decade or two ago, it was impossible to find a 7/11 that was participating in the free Slurpee offer. So it was a bit of an adventure trying to find that one 7/11 in the city that actually gave away free Slurpees, and finding that one store was akin to finding Bigfoot in the woods. You would take a picture of the miniscule cup with less than a mouthful of Slurpee in it and post it on the various forums with Slurpee day threads as proof. I would hi five or six 7/11s with no luck. and it was usually a board member in the mid west who found that one 7/11 an hour's drive from his house that were giving away shot glass sized Dixy cups of Slurpee and posted a picture as proof. But then 7/11 ( after repeatedly being embarrassed by David Letterman via a recurring bit with a fake CEO of 7/11 ) finally began making the free Slurpee giveaway mandatory, and even began supplying stores with the cups so there was a standard amount being given away. The fun then became ( aside from seeing how many flavors one could drink in a day, )  exposing the 7/11s that tried to get out of the promotion. A couple of years ago COVID-19 put a huge dent in Slurpee Day. But now it is back, and so are the 7/11s that try to get out of it. I was not stationed downtown this year, so was told by someone else I know who was in the area that the Chinatown 7/11 was up to it's same old trick. First, they change the signs on the Slurpee machine so it looks like all four taps ( or whatever you call them ) offer nothing but Banana flavor. ( a disastrous flavor 7/11 has not offered in the NYC area in years. ) Then all four slurpee machines are churning nothing but some unidentified liquid, and the store owner says it will take another two hours for it to chill into a Slurpee. Same trick every year. This year I was sent to customers in Hell's Kitchen ( the neighborhood currently called Clinton ) and after I was done, found a 7/11 almost every few blocks. So, here is how the day went:

7/11 8th Ave near 53rd
What a poorly managed line.  It was outside the store for half a block and took forever to move. When you got to the door an employee would let people in about six at a time, and then the next six when the Slurpee table inside emptied. Other people were allowed into the store without waiting on the line to actually purchase stuff. But they were not handed a card that said "Free Slurpee". Yet once in the store, I noticed they were still going to the Slurpee table and getting one without handing over the card, so basically cutting the line. Also, the people in this neighborhood are assholes. There is a long line outside in the heat. Just get your Slurpee and keep the line moving. Yet every person in front of me spent about two minutes asking about the flavors and chatting with the employee who filled the Slurpee cup, which is why that line was long and moving so slow. When it was my turn I immediately pointed and said "Cherry" and walked out of there so the next six could get out of the heat.

7/11 8th Ave between 43rd and 42nd.
Self serve. And some spoiled white girl was filling a cup, tasting the flavor, dumping it out, moving on to the next flavor, tasting it, dumping it out, and doing this to about six full cups of Slurpee while I was there before settling on a flavor. Which caused a huge mess she didn't seem to care about. I grabbed a Blueberry.

7/11 42nd between 8th Ave and 9th Ave.
That's right. Two 7/11s on the same city block! Self serve. Got myself a Pina Colada because that seemed to be the flavor everyone wanted. Tasted like Coconut juice to me instead of Pina Colada. ( and no rum! ) But this store had the perfect blended Slurpee. The exact right ratio of syrup to ice, and the ice crushed into a perfect powder. Not watery nor ice with a little flavoring as at other 7/11s. If you are in the city and going to buy a Slurpee, then this would be the 7/11 to seek out ( and right next to the bus terminal. )

7/11 8th Ave neat 40th
Every Slurpee machine had a sign on it claiming the Slurpees were still mixing and to return later. And none of the cups were out on the display table.

7/11 8th Ave near 37th
Self serve. And a huge sticky mess on the floor. And I picked up one of the cups out of the display box and it had a dead bug in it ( some sort of fly ). So got a different cup. Got myself some Slurpee with the word "Dragon" on it, which was actually Grape.

7/11 34th between 8th and 7th.
RIP! This location is shut down and the store has a for rent sign. For real. It is not as if they cleaned out this location just to avoid Free Slurpee Day. A shame as I have been to this location almost every Slurpee Day in the past two decades.

7/11 34th between 7th and 6th across from M*A*C*Ys.
Self Serve. Possibly the same owner of other store. Made the mistake of getting Mountain Dew. Tastes like grapefruit juice with pepper.

7/11 8th Ave near 28th.
Once again a store where the employees fill the cup for you. I asked for Coke, and these guys filled the cup past the plastic dome on the top. By the time I finished it, my stomach wanted me to stop. But I had one last store to visit before I left the city.

7/11 8th Ave neat 40th
It has been over an hour and the machines still with signs on them saying to come back later and still no cups out. Conformation this location was trying to get out of the promotion.

This has to be the last year I try this. A  decade ago two thirds of the 7/11 locations I went to claimed their machines were down, or found some other excuse not to participate. I would be lucky to get three Slurpees the entire day. This time I had seven in 90 minutes and my stomach hated me for it.

[stethacantus]

I originally started writing this update on Friday, and was nearly finished  when the lights ( including the computer ) went out. Only for a brief second, but everything not light rebooted. The result of everyone in the neighborhood blasting the AC at the same time, I guess. I had intended to restart this on Sunday, and forgot. So here it is. late.

Last year I had vowed it would be the last year I do these 7-11 Slurpee crawls on 7-11, because at some point you begin to feel the oversaturation of sweet, and realize you have about 40 minutes to get to a toilet before  all that liquid comes spewing out. The main reason I began doing this is because back in the early 00s Free Slurpee Day was optional, so me and some other members of other boards would give updates on which stores were actually giving out free Slurpees, and how big of a cup they had. ( You can still see an old video on Youtube of a Slurpee day of the past where the 7-11 was using tiny dixie cups, about twice the volume of a shot  glass. ) I could go to nearly 20 7-11's before I found one that was participating, then tell everyone the 7-11 on Madison and 23 ( now deceased ) is giving out the free slurpees. Eventually 7-11 made  the free Slurpees mandatory. So the updates were more about warning of the stores that were creatively trying to get out of giving away Slurpees. usually by claiming machines were broken.  You may remember my favorite, the 7-11 in China Town which only offered Banana ( or at least that was the decal on every single spout, as if that was the only flavor the store had. ) and the so called banana was not ready, and the store owners would tell you it will take another hour for the Slurpee's to freeze. Of course, the next day they had multiple flavors, none of which were banana, and all were frozen. Sadly, this year I was nowhere near any of the cheat stores. 

This year the Slurpee came in a special decorative cup that was entirely Styrofoam, which was 7-11's way of saying "F*&k the ocean!" They kept the drinks cool, I guess, for those people who decided to take an entire hour to drink their Slurpee.  I nearly missed it this year. With all the crap going on in Washington, I completely forgot there was a 7-11 day. I just happened to be depositing check in the company bank account from a client, and realized the date was 7-11. And, I was on the West side above 59th, notorious for being a 7-11 desert. Fortunately I got a call to see a client on East 85th Street, right next to two 7-11s.

7-11 on York Ave and 84th
They had a brand new flavor called Bad Bunny ( or something like that ) which said GRAPE among the flavors in it, but was entirely green. After ten minutes trying to figure out the familiar flavor, I finally realized, it tasted like Laundry Detergent. Or at least the smell that comes off of scented laundry detergent.

7-11 on 1st Ave near 87th
Got something called Ultimate Cherry. Which wasn't so ultimate as the mix was mostly ice.

At this point I did not get a chance to go near any more 7-11s during working hours, so when I checked out for the day, went to the midtown area. I was originally going to start at 28th and work my way North. but decided to start at 34th and skip two.

7-11 34th Street across from M*A*C*Ys
You know what's rude, white people? When there is a long line to the Slurpee machine because you guys are sampling all eight flavors. Filling half the cup, tasting it, deciding you don't like the flavor, dumping it out, and sampling another flavor, then after trying everything and dumping out everything, finally picking a flavor to fill the cup with. Thats a lot of Slurpee you dumped out, wasting the companies money, and your little tase fest takes about two minutes, which is why the line is so long. It's being held up by these white tourists ( Yep, tourists. I can tell ) who are being rude as shit. By the time I finally got to the machines and about half the flavors were used up, leaving just what I already drank, and Coke.  So that's what I took. Not a fan of it. I know they cant put carbon in a Slurpee, so some other mystery chemical is in there that tastes like carbon.

7-11 8th Ave and 37th
Most flavors used up and needed to be remixed. Did not want to wait, so took the only one left, Pina Colada ( which is basically Coconut flavor )

7-11 8th Ave and 39th
I wanted to have a Blueberry Slurpee all day, finally found a store where they were not in the middle of refreezing.

7-11 8th Ave and 42nd
Could not get a Slurpee here. They ran out of cups. And just minutes before I arrived, because there were other patrons with Slurpees in there, and the manager was saying "Slurpee Day over. No more cups>" So not exactly a cheat store, because they were giving them out as long as they had cups. Fortunately, this block has more than one 7-11 on it.

7-11  42nd between 8th Ave  and 9th Ave
Up to this point every store I went to you were given ( or took from a display ) a cup and filled the Slurpee yourself. This store, you went up to a table that blocked access to the Slurpee machines, pointed to a flavor on a chart, and the attendant on the other side of the table would fill a cup for you. I decided to end the day with one last novelty flavor. They had something called Caddy Shack. It didn't have the characters from Caddy Shack on the decal, or anything resembling Golf. It did say it was Ice Tea flavor.  It didn't taste like that. Was more of some sort of a citrus flavor. Have no idea why it was called Caddy Shack.