Why take a hard hat to a 7-Eleven?

Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray from 'No Such Thing as a Fish' discuss some silly shopping.

GUESTS:

HOST: Tom Scott.
QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe.

EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at the Podcast Studios, Dublin.
GRAPHICS: Chris Hanel at Support Class. Assistant: Dillon Pentz.
FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott.

[pjabrony]

7-Eleven was originally opened from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM, which was a lot longer than most stores. But now they're mostly open 24 hours a day, so the name is something of an anachronism.

[AC-imhi]

As an American, I knew this immediately

[herbstwerk]

Calling Allen Pan someone who 'makes things' is probably the most positive description of whatever deranged kind of chaos he actually does.

[TheRubySpider]

I fondly remember having a party to go to on Bring Your Own Cup Day, so I showed up with a popcorn bucket full of cherry slurpee that people could ladle into solo cups.

[Leafsdude]

"Sandcastle mold"...it's a bucket! It's a frackin' bucket! XD

[timothymclean]

4:30-40: For a second, I thought Tom meant he knew someone who built something like a drinking horn connected to the ocean.

[DFWHoppe]

4:38 "Operation Soda Steal"
Very old school internet lore that, surprisingly, Tom seems to know very little about.

[VonOzbourne]

As a Canadian, born in the "Slurpee Capital of the World", [I recall many years ago, a day when it was -45C and randomly meeting some friends who had all walked to 7-11 for a slurpee when our cars were frozen and we went insane] I had a feeling this was the case, but being a Lateral question, it seemed too obvious.

Perhaps that was why the question writers put this one to a bunch of British folks who would not be familiar with this promotion.

[evandavis]

The 64 oz is called the Double Gulp and is basically a bucket.

[olivier]

A movie theater in Bangkok did something similar with popcorn, but with no limit on the size of the container. Some people came with 30 gallon bins.

[geoffroi-le-Hook]

Big Gulp is 32 fl.oz. (about 946 mL), Super Big Gulp 44, Double Gulp is 64

[katie_knits]

The first and possibly only one I got straight away.

[erumaayuuki]

I didn't get it by the title, but when the sand castle mould was mentioned, I immediately knew the answer

[watcher]

I confess to being rather distracted by the date, being a former Homestuck fan. That was the comic's 15th anniversary after all (and April 13 is also significant within the text).

I couldn't fathom how using a hardhat and sandcastle mould as Slurpee cups would serve as a Homestuck reference. Because that part was so obvious it went without saying.

[djNM]

00:30 - I bet it's "unlimited Slurpy" day, using the mould and the hardhat as cups to fill with icy-cold slurpy drinks.

[avirajsinghmehta]

James is going to be in Jet Lag the game

[findmeinthefuture.]

This very much feels like a question aimed at non-American players. I was a teen when they first started the promotion (which was 2015 in the US, though they did it before that elsewhere in the world) and, at least in my suburban midwest US upbringing, it felt like a major holiday. I remember friends bringing a large popcorn bucket, which must have been just barely under the 10 inch diameter limit (to be honest I don't even remember there being a limit, so maybe some people disregarded that...). The funny thing is that it's not like slurpees are something you can really save for later, so there's not much to be gained from dispensing an insane amount of it. You take a few victory sips and then the rest goes to waste.

[BBubblegum-ouwq]

I’m happy that I got it straight away haha

[JHaven-lglj]

My grandson brought a soup pot into 7-Eleven this year on Slurpee day and filled it with mixed Slurpee.
The pot holds about 2 liters, and he drank about 1/3 of it before he decided he was done 🤢
Oh - they have a promotional sign standing in the store with a hole through it. If your container fits in the hole (or if the person working doesn’t care) you can use it!

[SylviaRustyFae]

4:40 Two things. One, i love Toms fumblin to even describe what Allen Pan does; but two — I **love** the title of Maker for folks who just "*make stuff*"in that ultra vague way where ya rly dont know what theyre gonna make

Maker is just a grt job title all around too, like heck; its the sorta title that one cud even give to a creator deity — so its like even more awesome there