The 9,000 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States are known for their frozen drinks and frankfurters of unknown vintage turning on a grill behind the counter.
Now, many of the stores are gaining a reputation as relentless purveyors of classical music, pushing Mozart and Verdi on all who loiter near the red, orange and green sign. It is being used not to open their hearts to the sublime, but to make them go away at once. In New York, not far from the Lincoln Center where the Metropolitan Opera is currently staging Aida, snatches of another opera are being broadcast by a midtown 7-Eleven to a far less willing audience in an attempt to dissuade people from loitering or begging outside the store.