Kwik-E-Marts in Chicago helped sell over 1,000,000 Sprinklicious pink donuts in July of 2007 to promote The Simpsons Movie. Actually, the 7-11s that were turned into Kwik-E-Marts in a marketing stunt outdid the regular stores in customer counts and sales. People want to shop at Kwik-E-Kart.

Other grocery items available at Chicago Kwik-E-Marts included Krusty O's Cereal, Buzz Cola, Radioactive Man Comics and Squishee Frozen Beverages. Customers had a rollicking good time and some store employees took on the personas of the characters in the cartoon series as well as their uniforms. It was a different, animated world for some 30 days in 2007.

The Kwik-E-Mart/7-11 unit sitting nearest Fox Studios in Burbank CA, expereinced sales at least 1,000 times those of a typical day. Chicago Kwik-E-Marts did phnomenal business as well.

The people of Chicago really liked the idea of going to a convenience store that they had watched for about two decades in a cartoon series. It was better than Disney World, Space Camp, or the nudie bars another Chicago character, Al Bundy, liked.

The 7-11 Corporation is a different type of company than the usual convenience chain, anyway. They are punned by comedians of all nationalities for a supposed prepensity toward hiring non-indigenous peoples in their store. In addition, 7-11 has been consistently one of the largest contributors to the fund raising done by the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy and Telethon efforts for decades. Jerry and 7-11 are still at it. Happily, this company of convenience outlets has helped to establish treatments and even cures and prevention for some types of muscular dystrophy.

7-11 showed moxie and good sport-ism by making this promotion happen with help from their friends at Fox and the ad agency FreshWorks (Omicron).

Perhaps in the future we will see Al Bundy shoe stores in Chicago area malls. That would be a good promotion if a Married, With Children movie ever comes about.