The 7-11 convenience store chain handed out free Slurpees yesterday to celebrate its eponymous calendar date, but Eric says the promotion flat-out sucked.

He cruised by a store and was denied his free drink because the location’s slush fund had apparently run dry. The clerk told him the store was out of the cups designated for the free Slurpees, but he could try again next year.

He writes:

I drove in to a local 7-11 in [redacted], Florida at appx. 6:20 PM this evening (7/11/10) to get my free 7.11 oz Slurpee as per the national promotion for the 7-11 chain’s “birthday”. When I left my car and walked up, I found a hand-lettered sign on the door to the store that said that there were no more free Slurpee cups. I went in and spoke to the clerk, when I asked what had happened he told me that “we only received a limited supply of cups and they ran out”. When I asked if there was a coupon available for the free Slurpee when they received more cups in he told me no, and that they had been told to tell people “tough luck” by corporate when they ran out of their limited cup supply. But, he did invite me to come back next year when the promotion ran again, and he told me to check the second 7-11 store down the street. I drove to that 7-11 (on my way to the local grocery store) and found same result, no special cups, no free Slurpee.

I checked the corporate website and there is a disclaimer which indicates “while supplies last, at participating locations”. Given that stores were apparently only allowed to use a special cup to dispense the free Slurpees, 7-11 corporate offices obviously had control on exactly how many free giveaways they would provide per store. But, 7-11 chose to market the promotion as a daylong event rather then first-come first-serve to the first 50, 100, 200, or however many customers came through the doors that day that asked. It’s obvious the marketing on this promotion was not completely thought through.

If you partook in a free Slurpee yesterday, what time did you arrive at the store, and what were the lines like?

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