7-Eleven

Open 247 fast and friendly. They always have tons of hot food and items are always stocked. I live down the street next to the one on pratt but I always come here instead.

I didn’t intend to become a regular here but when you live across the street, it’s inevitable. I bought peanut m&ms and an energy drink for about $ 6 at 2 a.m. the night after our first show at the Empty Bottle when I had been awake for two days and the m&ms were divine but I woke up late the next day and my friends left without me and I never used the energy drink. «Dollar Coffee Wednesday» was not a mantra but a greeting in graduate school at Northwestern, post-​bike-​ride slurpees a necessity. Why doesn’t anybody sell Diet Ruby Red Squirt? That’s okay, I tried Perrier. It went straight to my head. We came in here one night before watching The Matrix and I think you got a slurpee and I was mixing french vanilla & mocha-​flavored iced coffees when a guy straight out of Slacker (1991) talked about the molecules of the vanilla/​mocha mixture and told us about the drone/​camera he was building in his apartment just a couple of buildings down from mine. «Your sister works for the government? Please give her my card and email me.» I was a little worried I would see him again but I kind of wanted to anyway. The Matrix was really good. One cashier knew who I was because I always came in after band practice on Saturdays with my guitar. When I came in before work one day he told me he liked my purple glasses. A lot of people buy lottery tickets here. The last guy to win the lottery in Chicago was murdered. They do not sell coconut milk here.

The 7 – 11 on the corner of Sheridan and Pratt seems crammed into the corner of the building, but it is clean and bright on the inside. The clerks at this store are sweet and chill and I kinda like going here because the staff is nice. Things are a little more expensive here and there isn’t much natural food, but they have Arizona teas and ice cream.

This 7-​Eleven is much like others: if it’s nearby, it’s a convenient way to pick up sundry items at any time, day or night. This one is right around the block from us, and has polite clerks; it’s certainly not a supermarket, but I have no complaints.