7-Eleven in talks to buy Casey's General Stores

[tesg]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD9I4N66G0

This is a move to thwart a hostile takeover by Couche-Tard (owners of the Circle K brand). For either company, it would be a good fill-in move territory-wise.

I have to wonder how much of Casey's business model would survive, though. Each Casey's has a kitchen and a substantial part of their business is take-out pizza, made fresh on-site.

Still, I wouldn't mind seeing Slurpee machines in the upper Midwest again.

[Alpha8472]

7-Eleven has been expanding their selection of hot foods lately.

If only it were possible for them to retain the hot food selection of Casey's.

I believe that most convenience stores sell some sort of Slurpee equivalent. Most serve Icee's. Icee's seem almost the same, however the flavors are different. 7-Eleven is constantly switching to new flavors and coming out with collectible cups. Icee really doesn't offer collectible cups and their flavors are always the same.

[storewanderer]

The Icee seems very similar to the Slurpee. I prefer the Froster at Circle K. It is slushier and less airy. A small (12 ounce) Froster feels much heavier than a medium (20 ounce) Slurpee and costs substantially less.

[Brian Lutz]

According to the Wikipedia article on the Slurpee, at least when they started out 7-Eleven actually licensed the rights to sell Icee products, but did so under the conditions that they had to sell their product under a different name (hence the Slurpee name,) and that their product could only be sold in 7-eleven stores. I'm not sure if this is still in effect though.

[Alpha8472]

Frosters are rebranded Icee drinks. That means that Icee makes the ingredients, but they are sold under a different name at Circle K. The same is true for Freeze Frame drinks at Regal Cinemas. They are also made by Icee. Just a change in name makes people think that they are getting a totally new and different product.

Icee drinks vary by the machines that make them. The temperature, consistency, texture, etc. are all supposed to be within a certain range, but each machine is slightly different.

[storewanderer]

This is very interesting to me. The Cherry Froster does taste identical to a Cherry Icee but the texture and thickness is a lot different.

I have noticed at Quik Stop (Kroger) the Icee machines were recently rebranded to something called "Frozen Central" but it is the same machine and product appears to be the same thing. Also the fountain and frozen are the same price right now, which did not used to be the case.

[submariner]

We seem to have diverted off topic...