We do a lot of reading and observing. It’s fun and we always seem to find something that seems intriguing.
For example, Monday’s Wall Street Journal featured a story (Mexican Regulator to Rule on Beer Sales) talking about how an upcoming ruling by Mexico’s antitrust regulator could end beer makers’ sales exclusivity agreements with corner stores and restaurants, clearing a path for craft brewers and other players to “crash a lucrative party” co-hosted by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Grupo Modelo unit (think Corona) and Heineken NV’s Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (think Dos Equis).
Note: Learning more about beer sales in Mexico got Doc’s attention. But we digress…
Apparently, close to half of the beer sold in Mexico each year is channeled through small, mom-and-pop convenience stores, many of which agree to sell only one of the two brewers’ brands in exchange for branded awnings, signs or refrigerators, as well as discounts on beer purchases, credit and even assistance with local permits.
Clip from Monday’s Wall Street Journal
It was this section that got our attention: “The companies have long offered restaurants and small quickie marts incentives, such as discounts or assistance securing alcohol vending permits, in exchange for the outlets only offering their company’s beer portfolios.
Are they really called “quickie marts”? We wondered because we always thought that was a Simpson’s thing. The Simpsons is the longest running cartoon on television.
In fact, so interwoven into popular culture, the convenience store 7-Eleven remodeled a dozen stores in the U.S. and Canada into the Kwik-E-Marts of the cartoon family’s fictional Springfield, USA hometown as part of a promotion for the release of “The Simpsons Movie.”
A quick Google search uncovered this:
Our Google Search results.
As you can see, its mostly Simpsons references.
Dooh!! Or rather, let’s just say, very interesting.
As we see it, this serves as a reminder that making reading sort of a pro-active, fun adventure as opposed to a Evelyn Wood speed reading exercise, is a good thing. You could find some interesting tidbits and ponderables.
For example, we just so happened to find out that tomorrow July 11 is the official birthday of 7-Eleven. Cool, huh?
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For your viewing pleasure, here’s a link to an episode of The Simpsons where the Kwik-e-Mart is featured.
Stay curious my friends!
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