I am honored to be the first reviewer of this absolute classic.
Across the United States, some communities "of certain stature" demand signage that blends in with the "good tastes and sensibilities" of the local citizenry. I've always considered this practice to embody the " on a " adage. You know what I'm talking about, right? (E.g., national burger joints in posh environs with "ye older place of hamburgers" looking signs / national taco outlets in said environs with shields of Iberian heraldry - boasting of "an artisanally bent shell" and whatnot. All this to say that certain signage is an artifice to shoehorn a round-peg business into a square-hole area. Well - we all see through such cheap trickery...
...BUT! While certain covenants may be in play here to soften the blow of a 7-Eleven (of all bodegas!), the signage itself is no ruse. I know first-hand that it's the same signage of the year I arrived in Naples (1983) and it was decades-old back then. So...
"FOOD 7-ELEVEN MILK" (it harkens back to the earliest days of the defunct Southland corporation - ingeniously selling , milk and eggs from ice House store fronts in pre-war Dallas, TX.
Ok - let me get to this particular enterprise. This is a sociologist's wet dream! At any time of day (although the wee hours are most likely) one can find area beach bums dropping a pocket of quarters, dimes (mostly) and nickels on the counter in exchange for as much and that will buy / and the next person in line is a fortune 500 heir who's Silver Ghost is double-parked out front as he darts in to get a solitary straw and some tic tacs.
Oh sure - regular folks like us come here occasionally as well, but really... What are we doing down here - going to a convenience store - if we're not members of either the top or the bottom "out of sighters"?
Honestly, this convenience store is surprisingly unkempt when compared to the myriad 7-Elevens stationed in more modest environs.
Well - there you have it. My two cents on third Street South institution! read more