Late Night Convenience Store Thread

[幽邃森林]

I'm not sure if I'm on the edge of the spectrum but I tend to have a hyper fixation on unusual topics, the latest being convenience stores.

I'm specifically thinking about those 24/7 stores operating at hours when the majority of the locals have no reason to be outside. The buildings look almost Ike oases of fluorescent light in the umbra of the witching hour, offering junk food, energy drinks, and booze to all who venture from the deep dark night to their doors.

The few clients who slink in from the dark are interesting folk who usually consist of blue collar third shift workers, a young road tripper doing an "all-nighter", "urban youth" loitering, or a trashed person who left their house party to embark on the quest to restock the beer.

I love going inside these stores at these times because they almost feel like liminal spaces. It's similar to the feeling of venturing to the refrigerator for a midnight snack but amplified five-fold.

I don't think I'm alone in my fascination with these atmospheres, as there's plenty of cheap Unity horror games set in the convenience store third shift.

So what about you, Agora? Do you like setting out on late night quests to convenience stores?

What's your favorite store? 7/11? Famiri Matu? Kwik Trip? Or a local mom-and-pop? What do you usually get?

Have you ever had the opportunity to work in one? How was it?

I want to hear all your convenience store stories.

 

[Venomnik0]

Made me think of this from myhouse.

Also extra pic below

 

[Aral]

I'm not sure if I'm on the edge of the spectrum but I tend to have a hyper fixation on unusual topics, the latest being convenience stores.

Nah, you're just curious, and that's a good thing.

There are no such convenience stores where I live (France), I think only some motorway gas stations could fall under this category, but I haven't been on the road late at night since I was really little, so I don't know. I'd really love to try and go inside one very late at night, because yeah, I love that atmosphere as well. Kinda liminal as you put it. Convenience stores are by essence a little liminal, I think.

 

[fuka_eri]

Book recommendation for convenience store enthusiasts:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Very short and weird book, highly recommend.

 

[Cobalt]

I also have a strange affinity for convenience stores. I like the visual look and aesthetic, plus all the other things you already mentioned. In a society where people are increasingly stuck in this work-home cycle, its one of the last few third places that most people still frequent regularly. Theres really is nothing like a moody late night walk to the local convenience store. Usually I just get coffee or a few cans of beer.

 

[mesaprotector]

When I lived in New Jersey the only nearby 24 hour store was a 7/11. The journey there was a straight walk, eight blocks west-northwest. It started out as a quiet, dark walk among houses and gradually got darker. After the fourth block the road began to drop, more and more steeply. The last block wasn't even passable for cars - just an overgrown gravel path falling right down on to the side of the freeway.

That freeway felt like the Rubicon. I'd never want to cross it in daytime - and I never did - but late night if you waited a minute or two there'd always be a long enough silence to sprint across, vault over the median, and sprint the rest of the way. The 7/11 was right there, and surprisingly brightly lit. I usually bought an Inca Kola and took the "easy" way back - a couple of hundred yards south to the actual crosswalk.

EDIT: checked and found I have one crappy picture of the place stored on my HDD.

 

[Pangolin]

There are no convenience stores here that are open 24/7 mainly for safety reasons and because there is nobody there to buy anything. Its already dangerous to head to a gas station. I feel like I am going to to be murdered by other patrons to the gas station because its full of both shady drivers, and shady dudes that hang out at gas stations. You can see such shady dudes standing outside gas stations doing nothing and having nowhere to be. Worst of all these dudes will try to talk to you and ask for money.

 

[handoferis]

never shop here, they might be open all night but they'll open your bank account all night as well

 

[Obake]

It's super weird to me that you included Japanese convenience stores and American gas stations together in the same post. They exist in entirely separate worlds.

As for me, I'm a FamiMa guy. I hear a lot of people claim that 711 has the best food but that's just not true, Family Mart bento are where it's at. But in all honesty I don't really go to convenience stores very much unless I have to ship a package. They're expensive, you can save money by just going to a grocery store.

 

[wearyinternettraveler]

If you've never been, American 7/11s at 2 AM are an ethereal experience. You have gamers buying monster, fat white trash moms buying cigarettes and scratch-offs (you see this anytime but they're way worse at night), hispanic guys buying a snack on their break during the third shift, and a portal to Agartha next to the slurpee machine. Yes, it's a great place to find yourself raped but at the same time seeing a brightly flourescent-lit building in the middle of the night gives off a liminal vibe, as others have said. It's intensified by the fact that for a lot of the clientele, there's not really any other place for them to go, so it's kind of like watching people standing around in a hallway.

 

[幽邃森林]

If you've never been, American 7/11s at 2 AM are an ethereal experience.

7/11s are night and day between Asia and the USA.

Where I was from, we never had 7/11s so my experience of them came solely from those videos raving about the awesome Japanese 7/11s. I finally encountered them in Chicago and was somewhat hyped to enter it only to be met with an experience similar to:

You can see such shady dudes standing outside gas stations doing nothing and having nowhere to be. Worst of all these dudes will try to talk to you and ask for money.

Japanese get their postal services along with their bento. Americans get the local crackhead with their slurpee.

There are no such convenience stores where I live (France)

French society is respectful enough to workers where I doubt there'd be a 24/7 convenience store nearby. Instead you get those cozy cafes/bakeries which are a unique atmosphere on their own (especially when they open at the crack of dawn for construction workers). But I think that's a topic for another thread.

Theres really is nothing like a moody late night walk to the local convenience store. Usually I just get coffee or a few cans of beer.
View attachment 97511

They are always a prime destination for night walks if the area gets quiet enough. Going into one at 1:00 in the morning feels like you're entering a real-life save point.

 

[desudapsone]

Being at a 7/11 at night makes me feel like I'm about to get robbed, not to mention the food sucks and all I ever buy anyway are Four Lokos, beer, water, or gas. It might be nice and shiny at first glance, but I wouldn't go there at night unless I absolutely had to. Buc-ee's stores are much nicer and cleaner in my experience. Never had any problems during the day, but I probably still wouldn't go at night just in case.

 

[Aral]

French society is respectful enough to workers where I doubt there'd be a 24/7 convenience store nearby.

Hmmm, to be honest, I'd argue that this would make more employment if there were such things here. Especially for young people.

 

[SolidStateSurvivor]

7/11s are night and day between Asia and the USA.

Sharing a bottle of shitty whiskey outside of a Shibuya 7/11 before hitting the nightclub was a vibe I wish I could recreate here in the states. Instead you gotta worry about crackheads and hustlers, and you're hardly within walking distance of anything. American "convenience" stores are hardly ever convenient even if they're in your neighborhood.

 

[microbyte]

Man, I remember back in my high school days I had practice far away from school, and so we'd finish up really late, and nothing beat going to the local bodega (basically a convenience store), and grabbing some dinner (a BLT or a muffin) and Gatorade (either white or dark blue), before the two hour train ride home with the other guys. We'd argue which bodega was better (there were 2 equidistant ones, one had more selection, and the other didn't charge tax), and trade food on the train.

 

[Chuffed]

I worked at one for 2 weeks. I was 21 at the time, total nerd and not into smoking, scratch tickets, alcohol... any of that. Cops sent some kids in to buy beer (looked my age, probably 20 in retrospective), they talked back and forth and wouldn't get out of line. Line was filling up, I wasn't a confrontational dude so I just pointed at the screen and they bought the beer and left. That one cost me my job and a $300 fine - wasn't a big conspiracy on my side or anything, I wasn't 'hooking kids up with alcohol' or anything. Pretty sour taste in my mouth with law enforcement and 'secret shoppers' after that incident.

 

[幽邃森林]

Buc-ee's stores are much nicer and cleaner in my experience. Never had any problems during the day, but I probably still wouldn't go at night just in case.
View attachment 97558

Any convenience store that advertises clean restrooms (Kwik Trip, Buc-cee's, Love's) are usually not going to have the sketchy characters loitering around.

Trashy American convenience stores are to be avoided at night as they're just bad news. But clean American stores at night are the best haunts.

 

[Hadrian Hardrada Cicero]

View attachment 97493
Made me think of this from myhouse.

Also extra pic below

That almost looks like a fucking screenshot from Blockland of all things.

 

[Venomnik0]

That almost looks like a fucking screenshot from Blockland of all things.

Might as well be considering it is DOOM of all things. Very impressive WAD nonetheless

 

[Hadrian Hardrada Cicero]

Might as well be considering it is DOOM of all things. Very impressive WAD nonetheless

Oh, that was DOOM? honestly fooled me because the floor was missing which made think that was on a freebuild server (back then some freebuilds had like an invisible floor so it made you think it was only the skybox)