(WHDH) — 7-Eleven announced Tuesday that for the first time in nearly 20 years, Free Slurpee Day will not go on as planned this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The world’s largest convenience store chain typically gives away the complimentary frozen beverages to millions of people on July 11 to celebrate its birthday, but there will not be a joyous bash in 2020.
“At 7-Eleven, our top priority is the safety of customers, franchisees, and employees,” 7-Eleven Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Marissa Jarratt said in a news release. “Gathering nine million of our closest friends in stores on one day just didn’t feel right.”
7-Eleven says it plans to instead celebrate its birthday by donating one million meals through Feeding America to support communities that are in need.
To delight customers in a safe and socially responsible way, 7-Eleven says it will be dropping a free medium Slurpee coupon into every 7Rewards member account that can be redeemed throughout the month of July.
As an extra precaution to help reinforce physical distancing and safer transactions, 7-Eleven says it has installed sneeze guards and visual floor markers at the front sales counter, in addition to offering contactless payment at participating stores.
Free Slurpee Day has been the busiest day of the year at millions of 7-Eleven stores for two decades, serving as an unofficial start to summer, according to Jarratt.
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