I have to say when I was a kid in the early to mid 70s this was the main reason. No place really had air. Even the grocery stores didn’t. We used to also go into the grocers and stand by the meat and ice cream sections and open the doors. And get yelled at for doing so 
Plus the 7-11 didn’t care if you came into their air conditioned store and smoked or didn’t have a shirt or shoes on.
You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut, pay for your gas, and leave, could you? Now I gotta tie you up too.
Oh well. 'Least the dogs’ll eat good tonight.
In a town nearby, the convenience store is also the biggest public access building, and happens to be next door to a Sonic. Since they don’t have a Walmart like we do, that’s where the kids hang out.
ETA: I did mention that, on graduation night, I wound up seeing nearly my entire graduating class at Walmart. And now I learned from my younger cousin that kids actually have their parents drop them off there.
This has been the case every time I have noticed this phenomena. Usually some lonely older guy who has found a cute young captive audience. She can’t really leave and having him thrown out would be overkill, especially if he is spending some money and not just taking up space.
Back in the early '60’s we lived so far out in the country we were equi-distance from Hither and Yon…but had a small store down on our road! (I was in heaven because it was only a couple miles away & I could walk.) It was a forerunner of a One Stop store…inside you could get bread, a bologna & cheese sandwich & Kotex. On the right-hand side of the store (a whole side!) was a pot-bellied stove and gray-headed men and a checker board (I swear to God.) And on the top shelf over the bread (the Kotex were kept in back) was a shelf of library books. Pauline, who ran the cash register, kept a razor-sharp eye out for thugs who would want to steal county property, so I always made sure to hold my reading selection out in front of my chest so she could see I wasn’t “holding”…& in the summertime the men just moved out front onto the bench.
That’s why we all hung out there.
As a person who often engages in this behavior, I got to dispel some of the confusion. I hang out, sometimes, inside the convenience store on the corner of my street bc it’s a very nostalgic way of socializing with the folks in my neighborhood. Most of the ppl who hang out there are not homeless, nor am i. I do have many friends & usually not there bc I have nothing better to do or anyone to do it with. I know the owner well as well as the ppl who chill there. I stop by when I need smokes, wraps, a snack after smoking, etc. I usually stay bc I’m enjoying the company or I’m procrastinating on plans with friends or adult responsibilities. Sometimes we watch YouTube vids, discuss viral social media stuff & politics. Then there’s the added charm of actually engaging another human being outside of technology for a bit. It feels as if I’m a kid in the 90’s & early 2000’s again sipping beers, smoking joints, talking shit & hanging out. It’s a nice break from a busy life that often relies on technological necessity. Hope that clarifies things.
and in some small towns the store sold comic books and dollar/drug store type of toys and kites ect and had some video games off to the side or had a lunch counter where they had things like sandwiches and shakes so youd get the younger kids in the afternoons the older kids til the street lights came on and the adults after that buying smokes and beer…
I lived in front of a corner village pantry (indianas 7-11) and grandpa wanted ice cream one night and since it was maybe 30 yards through our back yard it was going to be a "lets see if he gets lost experience " and I even got a couple quarters to play the star wars game
Well I actually was getting lucky playing star wars … little did I know grandpa had been called and id have to be home in 30 minutes but I was done in 20 with the ice ream and a free bottle of pop which I didn’t have to share …… but yeah when we were bored the neighborhood kids lived at the vp……
Most people do not realize how long a day can be when you have nothing you have to do. And whne you have nothing, anything is something. At least hanging out at the local 7-eleven is something.
This right here, several of the convenience stores locally actually have a small table or two with chairs just for this reason.
The local 7-11’s around me are constantly surrounded by loiterers. They buy coffee and hang out out front. I don’t know about other places but here, I think most of them are day laborers; they hang out and wait for the contractors to stop in at 7-11 for coffee and snacks, and hopefully pick a few of them up for work.
A long-running joke in my house is whenever my wife sees me putting on my shoes and asks where I’m going the response is, “Goin’ loitering!”
So, basically the movie Clerks (as stated 8 years ago in this thread).
They’re waiting for the town to get a Starbucks.
The convenience store I worked at in high school had a couple locals who would play pinball all day–for their drinking money, if you get my drift.
Around here (Texas), it’s actually uncommon to see people loitering inside; mostly they stand around outside and either look creepy or menacing, depending on their cleanliness status and general demeanor.
Another thing to consider: 7-elevens are safe. There are always people there, and the staff does not put up with any nonsense. They will kick you out and/or call the police at the first sniff of trouble.
When I first had the cast on my arm and could not sleep, I’d go to the local 7-eleven in the wee hours of the morning. The clerks were very nice and gave me free coffee.
Here it’s usually old people that don’t use computers and have nothing to do, it’s a way of socializing or sometimes just people watching.
Sometimes a group, sometimes just one lonely guy.
Actually, I don’t. I know that pinball was once considered gambling, but my own personal experience is that the machines are quarter-gobblers.
The local would be there 8, 10, 12 hours and rack up a huge amount of free games. The boss/owner/manager would “Take the free games off” and the local would take his ill-gotten booty and go to the bar across the street. Or sometimes, just buy his cigs and high-tail it. It might have been a dime machine, my memory ain’t what it used to be.
This, for the convenience store/truck stop just outside of Willis, TX where I gas up the minibuses that I drive part-time.
Actually, the only really regular hanger-on I recognize on sight is a guy with a ZZ Top beard, riding a Harley-Davidson trike , and who parks near the door for a couple hours every afternoon whenever the weather is decent. He seems harmless enough.
As to my attitude toward the place, I’ve been thinking about writing a screenplay wherein that particular convenience store is an anteroom for people who are not yet aware they’ve been consigned to Hell for all eternity, so I guess you won’t find me hanging out there a moment longer than I have to.