There’s just something about convenience stores that are distinctly American and Midwestern, right?
Two dollar two day old hotdogs. Scratch off tickets. Kids on their bikes during the day. Drunk older men on their bikes overnight. Meth’d out cashiers. Cashiers who weigh 490. Cashiers who only weigh 90. Pickup trucks with hoods missing. 2014 Nissan altimas with tinted windows and expired temp tags. Ladies wearing jeans with rhinestone back pockets smoking next to the dumpster. Men with receding hairlines and gray ponytails tapping cigarette ashes into empty beer bottles.
People watching outside of convenience stores has been one of my favorite past times since 8th grade. Me and my friends used sit on the curb outside 7-Eleven and eat nachos. And we did Beavis and Butthead impressions. I AM CORNHOLIO I NEED TP FOR MY BUNGHOLE! These days I like to hang near the storefront and drink my tallboy beer or energy drink (or Liquid Death if I’m less adventurous) from a paperbag.
Ive seen all kinds of crazy stuff and hung outside at various stores throughout the years. My have favorites and least favorites.
2/10 Love’s
This chain tends to be icky. Inside and out. They have the least diverse selection of Mountain Dew flavors. But some locations are conveniently located.
Petro 9/10
If there were a such thing as a five star truck stop, Petro would be it. Wide variety of snacks. Donuts are fresh. And they sell Zippo lighters. Perfect thing to fidget with while pacing outside. Tend to be far and few between though.
7-Eleven 7/10
Variety of snacks and beverages are superior. They have certain Gatorade and Mountain Dew flavors exclusively sold there. Only convenience store I can find vegan protein drinks. Some locations have benches, so I don’t have to sit on the curb. Cleanliness tends to be subpar though. Chain that is most likely to “shoo” me away if I stick around too long. No bathrooms.
Casey’s 10/10
Like 7-11 but cleaner and has restrooms. Casey’s has their own line of chips and soda. I love their blue raspberry soda and Cajun chips. I can also get dill pickle flavor almonds. I believe Casey’s is a strictly Midwestern chain. This is the best place to degen besides the casino.
What are your favorites?
Midwest Degenerate Gambler
-I think there is no coincidence that “lottery” and “loitering” are spelled alike?
I’m heading back to the snob thread, I guess. There is a Dollar General near us/everyone and in a dire emergency I’ll stop there. My gf would rather drive 12 miles to a “real” store than 2 miles to a Dollar General.
As a teenager, would hang around a local convenience store called Park’s Place. Mr. Park was cool with us hanging around as long as we didn’t bother his other customers. He told me once that he would rather we hang around his store playing video games, than getting in trouble.
I don’t hang out in convenience stores.
Your thread took me back to Chong’s “keeping people from hanging out in front of the drugstore.”
I used to like Woolworths. In grade school, thats where we went to get make up.
Now, I like Sheetz because they have Mallo cups and if you buy enough, you can get a Mallo cup t shirt!
Someone get me mallo cups
We had Mr. Buckman. Jim Buckman was the vision-impaired owner and operator of the town’s only gas station; IIRC, he was also the mayor’s brother and a close relative of the original owners of our house. Best place in town for cold sodas out of a vending machine, candy, Hostess cakes, etc. His property also had the town’s only payphones, which my eldest brother utilized so he wouldn’t get anyone listening in calls to his girlfriend(s).
I think all the convenience stores around here, with the exception of one 7Eleven and one Love’s, are owned by Asian immigrants and all staffed by their family members. All the stores are clean and the staff usually polite. The
are more Wal-Mart or Dollar General things. There’s a Dollar General within walking distance of my house. I’ve been inside exactly once, realized how overpriced (and under-sized) everything is, and have never been back. Fuck that noise.
There’s a store attached to a Chevron station that I occasionally stop at on my way to work to get a sandwich – they have homemade sandwiches on big slices of actual sandwich bread, and they don’t skip on the meat or the pickles. And they’re only $7. They do not, however, have sugar-free Gatorade or Power Aide, so sometimes I’ll stop at a different store to get those if I have failed to stock up during my weekly grocery shopping. The owner of that one is an asshole, but his son isn’t and usually it’s the son working. If I’m craving a breakfast burrito I’ll stop at yet a different store, also attached to a Chevron station. They make homemade breakfast burritos to order, so I’m not getting something with rubbery eggs that has been sitting under a warming lamp for hours.
Now that I think about it, there’s one convenience store that is owned by a local good ol’ boy that I used to stop at if I needed something on the way home but now avoid like the plague because 1) the owner is a huge MAGA doucebag that proclaims his tribal affiliation all over this store and 2) bitches about the cost of running the store so keeps the lights somewhere between “dim” and “off” so shopping there is a bit of a daredevil experience.
All of this is an “occasionally to rarely” thing because, like kayaker and his girlfriend, I’d rather go a proper grocery store offering reasonable selection at lower prices and stock up and then just take what I need each day from my home fridge. I don’t buy candy or donuts or chips or any of the usual convenience store junk so I tend to stop at such stores only if I need something at 0dark30 in the morning when the real stores are closed. There’s also one about 3 blocks from my house I’ll go to if I need something last minute, like a loaf of bread or a quart of milk, but again, that’s rare because of the six P’s and all that.
I would like to stop a Buc-ees someday, but I’m far left coast so unless they have one in Dallas by next spring, that probably won’t happen.
I would never “hang out” in a convenience store. I stop there out of necessity only. In and out and GTFO and go on with my day.
The hanging around and loitering is kinda strange to me. I see there’s a regular cast of characters in the Walmart we go to. Always milling around, hanging at the Subway inside or sitting on benches in the Pharmacy section.
They make me nervous.
I mean, why?
I’d rather be almost anywhere more than a store.
Also, if you cannot find a bargain in Dollar General you’re obviously not looking very hard.
The one closest to me has issues, and a crazy lady that works there but there are things that are cheaply priced. I still hate it.
Quite the opposite. If you’re finding a bargain at Dollar General you haven’t looked for actual bargains at other stores. Dollar General might have a better deal on that gallon of milk than the local Kwik-E-Mart but it is not a better deal than the local Walmart (Or Safeway or Kroger or pretty much anywhere else) down the street. And if you get, say, a tube of toothpaste for $1, you’re getting $1 worth of toothpaste: the tube will be smaller and have less in it than the per-ounce better priced tube at Safeway or Walmart or Kroger. Dollar Tree has similar economics. Look at the per-unit price on that Dollar General “bargain,” compare it to Walmart or somewhere that does have actual low prices and do the math.
People don’t go to Dollar General for bargains. They go for convenience – one reason Dollar General like to establish their stores in tiny, rural communities that have no competition.
We have a Dollar General just up the road. It’s easier to get to for quick items than the Kroger or Publix right now. However, the story will change when the new Publix opens up next summer.
I don’t buy milk at a Dollar store, first off.
In fact I have a problem with anything in those sketchy coolers.
To save 30¢ on a notebook or a box of Kleenex isn’t worth driving 25-35 miles to get.
We go to the bigger town more than I’d like, so we usually get what we need there.
You just never know when you’re gonna run out of Clorox wipes or aluminum foil on a Sunday afternoon.
The DG does have a sales paper twice a month. If you look at your receipts, on the back is a $5 coupon if you shop on the next Saturday. You can really sweep a bargain if you need something that day.
On my way home from work I remembered my gf asked me to pick up a gallon of bleach. I drove right by a Dollar General so I stopped there.
But I made sure I got rid of the bag/receipt so she wouldn’t know.