7-Eleven Giving Away Free Slurpees

Today is the day all hot and thirsty Slurpee aficionados have been waiting for -- it's free Slurpee day at 7-Eleven. All day Monday participating 7-Eleven stores nationwide are offering free 7.11 ounce Slurpee drinks to customers, in a promotion that continues until midnight.

Based in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven is America's largest convenience store, and the Slurpee, a sweet, flavored frozen beverage, is a signature product. 7-Eleven licensed Slurpee from the ICEE company in 1967, featuring the product in its stores.

ICEE is popular as well, with a Top Ten free app at Apple's iTunes store.

7-Eleven expects to give away more than 5 million free Slurpee's Monday, in celebration of the convenience store chain's birthday, on 7/11.

Based on the number of stores 7-Eleven, that's an average giveaway of roughly 1,000 Slurpee's per store expected. But don't feel sorry for 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain isn't getting clobbered on the promotion. Hardly. Last year when 7-Eleven did the free Slurpee promotion in a birthday celebration on 7/11 the company saw a sales increase of 38 percent.

With the free giveaway promotion, 7-Eleven actually had a heyday in sales -- its biggest of the year.

You get a taste of it, said Slurpee senior brand director Laura Gordon, and you choose to have more.

But it's more than that, since 7-Eleven sells much more than Slurpee's. People wanting to line up and wait for the free frozen drinks are buying more gas, more coffee, and more of other top-sellers at America's largest convenience store chain.

Slurpee fans can also visit the company's signature website, slurpee.com, downloading hats and confetti to join the celebration. They can even take a picture of themselves in celebration mode and post it on Slurpee's Facebook page.

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