Mascot Mania Sweeps the C-Store Scene

Everyone loves mascots, whether they’re cute, ugly, or just plain insane. They’re adopted by a group to personify the qualities of that group, although sometimes they’re so out there that you have to wonder just what thiose qualities might be.

Izzy, the 1996 Olympic mascot, is a good example of the latter.

So is Big Red, the mascot of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Just what is he, um…it?

We’ve seen the Angry Sandwich below somewhere, but we can’t quite remember where. Maybe he’s angry because his C-store operator didn’t use the latest Food Service management software to ensure he was made of the right parts in the right quantities:

That’s okay, because most mascots are a lot of fun, and on top of that, they’re supposed to bring good luck, two reasons why plenty of C-stores have adopted them.

For starters, there’s the always delightful Buc-ee’s® Beaver, now immortalized in a sculpture of bronze.

The Laredo Taco Company®, part of the Stripes® chain of C-stores, employs a mascot that made a personal appearance on last year’s National Taco Day.

Turbo Tom rockets into view at TomThumb® community events, and WaWa stores have not one, but two mascots, Wally Goose and the Walking Hoagie.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the wise, winking owl that is the symbol of Couche-Tard, the parent company of our corporate client Circle K®.

As readers of this blog might expect, some of the most offbeat mascots associated with C-stores originate in Asia. Here’s a Taiwanese C-store mascot that inspired a musical number.

A few years ago, Japanese mascot Domo-Kun was a sensation when his image was adopted by 7-Elevens across the U.S.

What about SSCS? Well, while we have no official mascot, one mysterious character does seem to pop up around here from time. Known only as The Doctor, rumor has it that he’s the gatekeeper of the SSCS Portal, a treasure trove of useful information we make available to our customers:

We’d ask him ourselves, but just haven’t been able to track him down, and besides, he looks a little…severe. We’ll keep digging, though, and if we find out any more about him, we’ll get back to you on a need-to-know basis.

In the meantime, if you have any ideas who he is, drop us a comment in response to this blog. We’d love to fill in his backstory.