7-Eleven's New York City Takeover
First they came for Union Square, to build a T.G.I. Friday's, but I wore no flair so I said nothing. Now they are coming to build more than 100 7-Elevens in New York City… including at 14th and 6th.
First they came for Union Square, to build a T.G.I. Friday's, but I wore no flair so I said nothing. Now they are coming to build more than 100 7-Elevens in New York City… including at 14th and 6th.
Finally, city kids will have a place to hang out after school. They are going to build parking lots out front so they can skate board?
I miss the gyro stand at 14th and 6th (there was something about the soot that would get coated on the lamb/beef/mystery meat spiral that made it a cut above). I know it hasn't been there for years, but I still miss it.
I don;t understand all this TGI Friday's hate. Just who do you think handles all the "creation" of the TGIF's brand? Middle America? No. McCann-Erickson. You know where McCann-Erickson is HQed? NY. New Yorkers have created this chain so pointing out that it is somehow invading NY from the outside (i.e. an unwashed America that shops at JC Penny's (!)) is dumb. It is a creation of NY and it is simply, so to say, coming home to roost.
From Wikipedia:
The Friday's restaurant chain was founded in 1965 in New York City, featuring standard American cuisine, bar food and alcoholic beverages. The restaurant was located at the corner of 63rd Street and First Avenue. The exterior featured a red-and-white striped awning and blue paint, and the interior included wooden floors, Bentwood chairs and striped tablecloths; the bar area added brass rails and stained glass. The employees were young and wore wacky uniforms, and every time someone had a birthday, the entire restaurant crew came around with a cake and sang Friday's traditional birthday song.
TGI Fridays was founded by Alan Stillman, who later sold the idea to the company that began franchising it. He was an ad man who lived near 1st and 63rd and was bummed that there was nowhere in the neighborhood for young professionals like himself to hang out and meet other young professionals of the same or opposite sex, depending on preference. With the money he got from selling the idea, he opened Smith & Wollensky's, The Post House, the Manhattan Ocean Club, and a slew of other Manhattan restaurants. So, he, too, left the unwashed masses behind.
Meanwhile, it is now headquartered in Carollton, TX.
When I was in the marketing department at Absolut Spirits, we were constantly "dumbing down" marketing concepts to be used in chains, so blaming McCann is misplaced. They're simply producing what their client wants.
but isn't it still an original creation of NY and uses NYer ingenuity and skill to drive its expansion?
McDonald's started in San Bernardino, CA and lasted 13 years before the Krocs franchised it. The parallel argument would be that McD's is "still an original creation of San Bernardino and uses San Bernardino ingenuity and skill to drive its expansion".
Also, are there are non-sponsored 7-11 slurpee flavors anymore? I thought they used to have plain cherry and plain blueberry, but now everything's Coke this or Mountain Dew that, at least the last I checked.
but that's just it. It doesn't. McD's uses a lot of agencies. Leo Burnett in Chicago. One german DDB one I cannot remember. The point is that these agencies are always located in cosmopolitan places and staffed by creatives and such who react just like this when the very chains they work hard to promote come to their environments. Is the disconnect willful or do i just not get it.
A big chunk of McD's brand management is handled out of Moroch, an agency in Dallas. Is Dallas cosmopolitan or middle America? I would argue the latter.
Dallas is also Litochoro to the Mount Olympus of chain restaurants — our clients there always choose chain restaurant when we take them out. In New York, where people usually prefer original restaurants, that's unheard of in my experience.
Is the anti-TGIF sentiment akin to an upstream polluter finally forced to deal with its own shit? Maybe. Or maybe we're all polluting the same stream, only NYC finally ran out of Perrier. Thank goodness for Chili's Fajita Rita Mondays!
1st: Mcdonald's was probably a poor example as it isn;t seen as a repulsive chain restaurant by NYers because, well, it's fast food and it's supposed to be chainy. As for Dallas, I think I'm talking about a section of the population as much as one location. (Indeed, there are probably plenty of NYers who love Applebees.) So let's say, The Awl's demographic. Finally, yes. the polluter comparison is good (and funny!)
Abe, as a fellow fly-over dude, thank you for fighting the good fight. But it's like arguing abortion -obliviousness to anything west of the Hudson or east of the East is fed in through the Manhattan water system. But onto my TGI Friday's story.
"T.G.I. Friday’s opens in Dallas in the spring of 1972. As in New York and Memphis, T.G.I. Friday’s took the city by storm. The Dallas restaurant nets a record-setting $2 million in revenues its first year." [Yes, $2M in 1972]
OK, so this dates me. But so what? Here's the deal. I think I was about 4 or maybe 14 in 1972, and my Dad was newly divorced and really horny and my brother and I were still living with him. And TGI Friday's opened in Old Town Dallas, about 3 miles from my Dad's house.
It was the Swinging Seventies and people were just sexing it up major, including Dad. That was when I learned about [overheard] the Friday's "Gold Rail" set-up. Basically, there was the island bar, in the center, and it was surrounded by the "Gold Rail." If a lady sat within the Gold Rail, she was looking for companionship. Otherwise, you left her alone or risked getting thrown out. Dad thought this was major, and I find it rather funny now in retrospect. But that is really how TGI Friday's took off – "The Gold Rail."
Oh yeah, 7-11 was also founded in this furnace, and NYC, yes you deserve several thousand outlets. You'll learn to love those "home-cooked brownies" at 4am on a late, late Friday night.
Also to NYC: You invented "The Gold Rail." Be proud of bringing the crazy-ass notion of loose sex to the flyover states. Without you, we would never have had the daughter of Sarah Palin at whom to giggle. It is sad somewhat now though, because I believe such a rail only exists in most places as "the sidewalk outside the bar where you have to stand to have a legal smoke."
wow.
THIS IS PHENOMENAL NEWS!!!
I loved the part where Bryan Brown fucked Gina Gershon just to take Kieran down a notch.
Cocktails and Dreams, indeed.
Dude had to win his bet.
7-11 is all over Thailand. And they have surprisingly decent snacks for after your digestive system decides that the native Thai cuisine's more than it can handle.
Don't forget about Tokyo: the only city where I've been standing in front of a 7-11 in Yotsuka while gazing across the street at a Circle K.
AND an am/pm.
ypu know i went to circle K in hong kong for like a year before i figured out it was "OK"…. also, 7-11s are the best places (in asia) to get slurpees when it is like 110% humidity and 400 degrees and your chunking mansions room has no AC because you are broke.
YESSSSSS ! I had forgotten all about 7-11 in Tokyo. It was one of the few places actually open after 11pm in Akasaka. I used to assault the staff with my brutal (and drunken) Japanese …
After mocking that article about people not wanting to live in giant luxury condos because they weren't unique and precious enough, you might want to turn down the OMG-New-York-is-going-to-have-stores-just-like-any-other-city horror.
But it reminds us of home, where we don't want to live.
The 7-11 in Astoria is one of my favorite places. The iced coffee is decent, and you get 20 ounces for $2.19. And they have slurpees. It's junk food as entertainment, and decent coffee fix all wrapped up in one clean nice shop.
I think one for every neighborhood is plenty though. It's nice, but it ain't no Dunkin' Donuts.
Cho will be thrilled.
Cho is already thrilled.
I've only seen one 7-11, at 43rd and 8th (ish). I didn't realize they'd been quietly laying eggs.
let's be real: 7-11 is the best.
I look forward to the hotdog-shaped burgers they have rolling around by the register. Ideally shaped for the hotdog buns!
hothamdoburter
also: frankfurger
Wasn't there a TGIF on Broadway and like 62nd street already? I think it temporarily became a WaMu, like every other storefront in the neighborhood.
And also, 7-11 already tried and failed in NYC in the mid-1990's. There was one on the UES, 3rd Ave & 78th or so, and one on 23rd between Park & Lex, near the Taco Bell.
Didn't stick. Oh wait, there's one on 82nd & 3rd right now.
TEAM WAWA.
On the 7-11 tip, you know how milk here in NYC has the two-tiered expiration date? One date for outside NYC and one, drastically shortened, date for inside NYC? Well, the milk from 7-11 doesn't get sour until the outside-the-city date comes past. It's the freshest milk in my neighborhood.
Get back to me when they bring United Dairy Farmers to Brooklyn.
Am I really the only T.G.I. Friday's bartender alumni up in this hizzle?
well, I'm kind of excited that I will no longer be forced to go to Duane Reade when I need to buy cigarettes with a credit card. buying cigarettes at the same place that they sell medicine always make me feel weird. bring on the Sleven!