Officially Technological
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
7 Eleven
I think when I find something in life I can’t explain, I’ll think about it until I come up with some explanation, whether reasonable or not (which I decidedly prefer the less reasonable explanations – much more interesting). So, I was thinking the other day about the convenience store, Seven Eleven. I don’t know why things enter my consciousness at some times but not at others. I believe this particular incident was contrived after reading that it was 7:11 PM on the clock in my car.
So, I thought about that for a while. Why did the owner name the store Seven Eleven? And I thought there must have been a fellow who worked in a little shop (some time before neuroses were considered negative things – probably the 20’s or so). This little fellow probably worked in a little boring shop (like a shoe-repair shop) on the second shift, and was often bored and lonely because he worked alone and didn’t have very many customers due to the dinner hour and nightly radio schedule. And this fellow, probably suffered from OCD, and would wait until his shift was half over to walk across the street to the little general store and buy himself a soda (and most likely a licorice). And every evening he went across the street at exactly 7:11 PM. In my theory, this fellow (with his OCD) would have to always abide by his break times and throughout his life he would always stop what he was doing and get a little snack at exactly 7:11 PM. Then, when he was older he decide to have a snack shop where people could by licorice flavored soda and other break necessities and he called his store Seven Eleven which in his mind was synonymous with “break time.”
Then I thought, that that was probably much too romantic for something like a convenience store where people are mugged, and it dawned on me that probably the store was named after the address of the first location (which, I don’t like, though much more reasonable). But, there’s not really much of a story in that.
So, I think I will continue to think of Seven Eleven as the little store that Mr. So-and-so opened before OCD was a disorder.
So, I thought about that for a while. Why did the owner name the store Seven Eleven? And I thought there must have been a fellow who worked in a little shop (some time before neuroses were considered negative things – probably the 20’s or so). This little fellow probably worked in a little boring shop (like a shoe-repair shop) on the second shift, and was often bored and lonely because he worked alone and didn’t have very many customers due to the dinner hour and nightly radio schedule. And this fellow, probably suffered from OCD, and would wait until his shift was half over to walk across the street to the little general store and buy himself a soda (and most likely a licorice). And every evening he went across the street at exactly 7:11 PM. In my theory, this fellow (with his OCD) would have to always abide by his break times and throughout his life he would always stop what he was doing and get a little snack at exactly 7:11 PM. Then, when he was older he decide to have a snack shop where people could by licorice flavored soda and other break necessities and he called his store Seven Eleven which in his mind was synonymous with “break time.”
Then I thought, that that was probably much too romantic for something like a convenience store where people are mugged, and it dawned on me that probably the store was named after the address of the first location (which, I don’t like, though much more reasonable). But, there’s not really much of a story in that.
So, I think I will continue to think of Seven Eleven as the little store that Mr. So-and-so opened before OCD was a disorder.
8 Comments:
I think I also "decidedly prefer the less reasonable explanations" of things like that. Especially the ones you come up with! I'm not nearly as creative as you. My best explanation would be that he opened his first store on the 11th of July...although then I'd wonder why he didn't call it "seven eleven sixty four" ...although that is a really long name to paint on a sign at a convenience store.
LOL! My husband thinks it was the original hours of operation (7A-11P).
once again, i get a happy little moment of laughter from you!! i'm sure glad i have this blog to brighten my day. :)
Good job Brian!
Initially, these stores were open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., hours unprecedented in their length, hence the name. The company began to use the 7-Eleven name in 1946. By 1952, 7-Eleven opened its 100th store.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven
Thanks Dan for pointing out my obvious intelligence. I am glad to know that my superior reasoning skills have won me the award of being the "why is 7-11 called 7-11 trivia quiz" winner. Unfortunately I don't think there is a prize.
P.S. Why are you blogging while on your honey-moon. Aren't you in some tropical paradise right now? More drinking and eating and less blogging, okay?
We are SO related. You may at some point in life like to deny it, but then you'll have to stop blogging or I will because the proof is all there for the whole world to see.
Christi and I used to sit in the mall or airport or whatever and make up stories about the people we saw. They were always interesting and never likely. Likely is just not interesting. Why bother?
T - Exactly. I used to love plane trips because there was never anything to do but hurry up and wait, so in the waiting I'd look around and come up with stories about everyone too. I travel alone a lot, so I always had hours of just sitting there and imagining.
So, how was your Thanksgiving?
...didn't you write a whole post on how great Thanksgiving is?
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