7-Eleven Kwik-E-Mart stores double sales

DALLAS, July 24 (UPI) -- Dallas's 7-Eleven Inc. says "Simpsons" product sales doubled at the 12 U.S. and Canadian stores it converted this month to fictional Kwik-E-Mart outlets.

The chain -- which installed industrial foam and gave the stores new signs to replicate the animated look of Kwik-E-Marts of "The Simpsons" TV show fame -- did the makeover to promote Twentieth Century Fox Corp.'s "The Simpsons Movie," which opens Friday.

The Kwik-E-Mart stores have sold nearly 1 million pink "Sprinklicious" doughnuts -- the type favored by Homer Simpson -- along with more than 1 million cans of Buzz Cola and even more cups of Squishee frozen drinks, the temporary new name of 7-Eleven's Slurpee beverage, ABC News reported.

The 7-Eleven Kwik-E-Mart near New York's Times Square ran out of KrustyO's cereal by 1 p.m. on the first day of "Simpsons" sales three weeks ago.

In total, nearly 4 million units of "Simpsons" merchandise have been sold so far, 7-Eleven said.

Has all this helped 7-Eleven's overall sales?

Because the company re-branded only 12 of its 6,000 stores as Kwik-E-Marts, a doubling of sales in those locations has not changed the company's overall sales, ABC News said.