Kwik-E-Mart
The Kwik-E-Mart (spelled "Quick-E-Mart" in "Bart the General") is a convenience store in the animated television series The Simpsons. It is a parody of American convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven and Cumberland Farms, and depicts many of the stereotypes about them.
Kwik-E-Mart
It is notorious for its high prices and the poor quality of its merchandise. It is run by an Indian-American named Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.[1] It first appeared in the 1990 episode "The Telltale Head" and has since become a common setting in The Simpsons. The Simpsons family are regular customers.
In July 2007, eleven 7-Eleven locations in the United States and one in Canada were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts as part of a special promotion for The Simpsons Movie. Also in 2007, gift shops modeled after the "Kwik-E-Marts" were opened in Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, where they are a companion to "The Simpsons Ride".
Role in The Simpsons[edit]
In The Simpsons the Kwik-E-Mart is a convenience store that sells the usual fare at extraordinarily high prices,[2] including the always popular Squishee.[3] The backstory is that the Kwik-E-Mart chain was started somewhere in the North Pole.[2] In The Simpsons the Kwik-E-Mart is operated by an Indian American character named Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, who mans the store with his brother Sanjay and is a caricature of the stereotypical "foreign born" convenience store clerk.[1] Apu proudly gouges customers and sells tainted merchandise, such as rotten meat or expired milk.[2][4] The Kwik-E-Mart is quite often the target of robbers, leading to Apu having been shot on several occasions and as a result having almost missed work.[2][5][6] On one occasion Marge Simpson mentioned that because of the frequency of shootings, it is only a $100 fine.