Fans of The Simpsons rejoiced three weeks ago when 12 select 7-Eleven stores refashioned themselves to resemble the fictitious “Kwik-E-Mart” store found on the popular show. The stores not only looked like the popular parody of c-stores, but also sold a bevy of show-inspired products, such as Buzz Cola, pink “Sprinklicous” doughnuts and even renaming “Slurpees” into “Squishees.”
While the act was simply meant as a promotional campaign for the new
“The Simpsons Movie,” 7-Eleven is cleaning up with big sales numbers. Since the promotion started July 2, more than 960,000 cans of Buzz Cola have been purchased, according to ABC News. The Sprinklicious doughnuts have also been a huge success, selling more than 880,400 nationally in the past three weeks. The company has also sold 1.1 million Simpsons’ Squishee-Slurpee cups.
In total, the 12 stores carrying the products has sold more than 3.4 million units of Simpsons merchandise and generated 64.3 million clicks on its Web site, through Sunday. The promotion ends July 31.
“The Simpsons Movie tie-in has been phenomenal, and so much fun for our franchisees, employees, customers and “Simpsons” fans,” Rita Bargerhuff, senior director of marketing at 7-Eleven, told ABC News. “While we knew that our customers and ‘Simpsons’ fans were often the same people, it has been amazing to hear stories of how people would drive across state lines to see the life-size characters, try the Sprinklicious donuts, buy Buzz Cola and KrustyOs and chuckle at the amusing signs throughout the store.”
While 7-Elven wouldn’t release the figures to show if this huge surge has added to the bottom line, it’s unlikely that it would. Only 12 of the chain’s 6,000 stores are pushing the products, meaning that a doubling in sales for that small segment probably wouldn’t make that much of a total difference.