All of us here at SAVSCI have a soft spot for 7-Eleven. Those of us who grew up in the west, in particular, wouldn’t have made it out of high school without starving were it not for the ‘Cadillac of convenience stores’ and the Slurpee is the Fedor Emelianenko of frozen drink products.

7-Eleven may even be a bigger deal in Japan, where the stores are ubiquitous. They also serve as something of a financial center/mail center/electronics store selling video games, DVD’s, and facilitating mail order purchases without credit cards. Oddly, they don’t carry Slurpees or Big Gulps which, inexplicably, were not popular in Japan when introduced.

Here’s a great 7-Eleven commercial in Japan. Notice how they create a vibe like Starbucks does here in the States. One big difference is that at 7-Eleven if a wino starts hassling customers they’ll run him off and/or call the cops, while in many areas the winos are coddled at Starbucks and the paying customers are admonished if they complain about the stench or belligerent bad behavior. And Howard Shultz is wondering why his company’s market share and stock valuation is plummeting faster than a rock thrown from the Space Needle….