,
12 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
OPINION | People Who Go to 7-Eleven Have More Fun
(What we can learn from "the grocery store but with more desperation".)
[Thread 1/x]
(What we can learn from "the grocery store but with more desperation".)
[Thread 1/x]
When [privileged white writer] ambled through the doors of a 7-Eleven, they said: "I am going to write a book on convenience stores. And I am going to start now. You always know so much more about where the poors shop for groceries when you have not seen it than when you have."
I imagined an amalgamation of pop culture references that will surely connect with the reader and make me relatable. Clerks, Apu, Slurpee Day, snark on nutritional value of Doritos. Are you with me? Are you invested? I will now needlessly attempt to extract insight from this.
I found 7-Eleven--or one store out of the 67,000 around world; note that I am acknowledging my extremely small sample size to draw broad conclusions on the whole but plowing forward regardless of this awareness--to be how [American humorist] described it: "CVS with Adidas".
Gosh, folks, it is a place where things WORK. The lights work. The freezers work. The cashiers are working. People are on their way TO work when they pop-in for coffee to get through work. And all I can do is look around at the grind and say, as the kids do: WERK.
I didn't see any robberies taking place during my time there. The cashiers didn't complain to me about their hourly wage. Everything seemed fully stocked and brightly-lit. The Slurpee machine was whirring with excitement. So far, so CVS with Adidas. Confused? So am I.
Everything's so fun here! The signage and glass graphics are exciting and beckon me to take part in the miracle of capitalism. The endless variety of powdered tortilla and/or corn-composite triangles and wedges are aplenty. There's even a small bowl of day-old fruit for purchase.
I have talked to four persons, all of whom seemed as enlivened as I was by the periodic ding of the store bell. From our greetings and convo on the weather, I have ascertained the character of not only the entire 7-Eleven corporation but the neighborhood surrounding this one.
Did you know people are more relaxed when relaxing in traditional spaces for relaxing? Normally, the impotency of my free time is comparable to the inconvenience of a gruesome atrocity, but here, I spent it seeing everything good and nothing bad.
There are no problems at 7-Eleven. No rage. All fun. No apparent poverty or hunger or bigotry or other cultural discomfort. I don't know this for sure but given that this particular space I'm in is (ahem) inconvenient for uncomfortable convos w/ strangers, that's my conclusion.
Yet, for all its wonder, 7-Eleven is a bit like the hottest girl in your freshman class: someone I never really got to know but on whom I drew a remarkably confident profile based on limited interactions, her wardrobe choices, and tired stereotypes from 90s/00s teen flicks.
I get paid to offer my opinions in the country's biggest newspaper. /thread
