The Slurpee Birthday

By

Bruce Horovitz
USA Today

Free Slurpees come with a twist: They may cost you.

The slurp's on them. But the goof may be on you.

Today 7-Eleven, the nation's largest convenience store chain, expects to give away 5 million 7.11-ounce Slurpees on the chain's unofficial birthday: 7/11. That's roughly 1,000 freebie Slurpees per store.

No coupons. No catches. No questions asked.

Those 7-Eleven folks sure must be dumb — as foxes. When they handed out 4.5 million Slurpee's last July 11, a funny thing happened: Slurpee sales for the day rocketed 38%, says Nancy Smith, vice president of marketing.

That's right: Folks bought more Slurpees, even though they could grab as many free tiny ones as they wanted. "You get a taste of it," says Slurpee senior brand director Laura Gordon, "and you choose to have more."

Perhaps. But many folks seem to be so enamored of the word "free" that they'll spend whatever it takes to cash in. In many cases, customers will spend more on gasoline just to get to 7-Eleven and wait in line for a free Slurpee than the estimated $1 retail value of the corn-syrup-laden drink that has virtually no nutritional value.

"Slurpee drinkers are some of the most loyal fans we have," Smith says. "They come here to have fun." And while they're in the store, Smith says, many buy other stuff, too.

What is it that drives consumers to chase after — even spend more to get — freebies? Denny's has seen record crowds when it's given away breakfasts. Ditto for free chicken wings at KFC and free doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts. "Free is magic," says Barry Schwartz, professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. "If you offer something for free, people will gladly spend money to get it."

It gets sillier: People who go to Slurpee.com can download tiny hats and confetti to celebrate, photograph themselves, then post the picture on the Slurpee Facebook page for prizes.

Schwartz isn't buying — so to speak. "Economists are wrong about almost everything," he says. "But they're right about one thing: There is no free lunch — or in this case, free Slurpee."

Source;  http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-07-10-free-711-slurpees_n.htm

Free Sluprees FROM 7-11 ON 7-11

The famous Slurpee turned 44 years old in June. Actually it’s been around in other forms even longer, sometimes referred to as a slushy or some similar name.

But in 1965, 7-11 bought a machine that made frozen beverages from its inventor, Omar Knedlik and two years later began selling the concoction as the Slurpee. The name allegedly comes from the sound people made while drinking them.

To mark the anniversary, participating 7-11 stores will be giving away free Slurpees in 7.11 ounce cups between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Some healthcare professionals say that people should keep in mind while enjoying cold treats to beware of “spenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.” The better-known term is, a “brain freeze.”

Here’s what that’s about, according to kidzworld.com: “When cold stuff (like popsicles, ice cream or slushies) touches the roof of your mouth it can set off a nerve reaction (in the spheno-palantine ganglion, to be precise), that causes the blood vessels in your brain to swell. When the blood vessels swell, you get a headache. The headache usually lasts less than a minute.

“How can you make the headache go away? The key is to warm the roof of your mouth back up, thereby constricting (narrowing) the blood vessels. The easiest thing to do is to press your tongue to the roof of your mouth. You can also try drinking warm water. In the future, try to eat your frozen treats slowly and give yourself breaks between bites to let your mouth warm up.”

(I think we can all relate to the "brain freeze")