Winnipeg is the Slurpee Capital of the World?

July 18th, 2008, 9 Comments »

A couple of Winnipegers are visiting us this weekend. We discussed going for Slurpees, and they unveiled their vast knowledge base of all things Slurpable. Apparently Slurpees are very popular, because it has been the Slurpee Capital of the World for nine years running:

“It’s nostalgic at this point,” said regional market manager of 7-Eleven Canada, Inc., Dale Shaw. “This is probably the only place in the world where it’s a four-season beverage.” Slurpees have been a Winnipeg staple for generations, he said.

Shaw said the best-performing store in the city is at Pembina Highway and Killarney Avenue. “For the province, it’s Steinbach,” he said. The best-selling Slurpee flavours are G-Shock Gatorade and Slurpaccino.

Really? Gatorade and Slurpaccino? That feels like new-flavour marketing to me–those are the flavours I avoid like a the semi-solid plague.

Apparently Alex Perez made a documentary about the phenomenon back in 2006. You can watch a couple of video clips on the film’s site.

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Meeting Got Canceled

August 17th, 2007, 9 Comments »

Huzzah! Apologies for the ridiculously light blogging this week, but my Google Calendar has been blue with meetings day and night. I need a holiday from my trip home.

In any case, my first meeting of the day got cancelled and I’m borrowing some wifi from my client’s office to write this.

I’ve had a couple of Vancouver photos floating around from my crappy camera phone that I’ve been meaning to post:

Creative Parking

Is this legal? I sometimes see motorcycles doing this, so it is kosher for a Smart Car? I’ve written before about the inferiority of parking meters, and this is a great approach to fitting more cars onto a street, but is it above-board?

Slurpuccino

This is brand extension gone horribly wrong. The ‘grown up Slurpee’? I guess it doesn’t cost 7-11 very much to try this out, but who possibly wants this beverage from 7-11?

Now that I think about it, there seem to be two or three ‘anchor’ flavours of Slurpee–Coke, orange–and the rest are in an endlessly expanding rotation. How long before we have Potteresque Everything Slurpees?

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