If you are driving throughout the Midwest, you will inevitably set eyes upon an establishment called Kum & Go. It is a gas station/convenience store combo with more than 430 stores in 11 states (this, according to the company website).
Driving past a Kum & Go has always left me with a slightly queasy stomach. Though I admire the founders for trying to come up with a fun and clever name, I wonder if they might have gone a bit astray. But perhaps I am alone in my aversion. After all, Kum & Go serves more than 400,000 customers per day, records an excess of $2 billion in annual sales, and is one of Forbes’ top private companies in the country.
When we were in Tulsa a few weeks back, we needed some gas. Naturally, we stopped at the Kum & Go. Inside, Robbi and I found a rack of Kum & Go merchandise, shirts, hats, flasks, shot glasses, and the like. In spite of ourselves, we found ourselves admiring the design of the logo—the colors, the typography, the overall look and feel. It’s really quite nice:
I’m a sucker for good design, and even more of a sucker for camouflage. The end result:
I love the hat. I just love it. It’s a complicated object, horrible and sublime at the very same moment. I’m torn, of course. When I wear it, there’s a very good chance I’ll be misunderstood, but that’s part of the appeal.
It’s a complicated triangle, me and my hat and the Kum & Go.
Notice how Kato doesn’t really want to be in this photo?
Just goes to show, you can take the boy out of the midwest but you can’t take the midwest out of the boy.
they have a giant mug there you can buy to take in for refills, I think it’s 78 oz or something ridiculous like that. I bought one of those mugs for a friend cuz who couldn’t use a giant 78 oz refill mug that has “Kum & Go” on it?
I am speechless. Truly speechless. Perhaps their name is a euphemism for something?
I’m lovin’ it!
LOVE
That hat is mad sweet, but more importantly … where did you get the AWESOME T-SHIRT you are wearing?
JOSH H: THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED NOTICE FROM OUR SERVER. COMMENTS FROM UNC FANS WILL BE DELETED WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF POSTING. EVEN ONES FROM PEOPLE WHO USE THE HOLIDAYS TO HAND OUT ATTRACTIVE T-SHIRTS TO FRIENDS WHO ROOT FOR RIVAL TEAMS. SORRY. POLICY IS POLICY.
I’d like to note that the last comment to Josh H was actually written by Matthew and not me (this egregious error has been corrected). Matthew’s proxy threats are, obviously, empty. Truth be told, any spanking by UNC fans is pretty much legit, considering the spanking the Blue Devils got from AZ.
GO VCU!
All:
Lest you be fooled by the seeming ease of Robbi’s “sports banter,” I’d like to note that her last comment was written only after she asked me a battery of questions.
R: So…who beat UNC?
M: Kentucky.
R: Thanks. Right. Uhm…Who beat Duke?
M: Arizona. Thanks for rubbing salt in my wounds.
R: Ooops. Sorry. Right. So…what’s the name of the underdog that’s still in it?
M: VCU.
R: Right. Thanks. Um…what sport is this again?
And so on.
And to think I was going to say something mean about Puke in my original comment, and ended up deciding against it. It would probably also be helpful for Robbi to know that Puke lost one round earlier than UNC did … just to round out the story.
Also that they wear a gnarlier shade of blue.
Matthew:
With all this basketball talk, I can only say one thing: I feel you, man.
Wear the hat backwards…chicks dig that, no matter how backwoods-dee-by-gosh it looks.
DPuke sucks.Really laughing out-fucking loud!
Jenifer:
Wow. That might be the very first real-live NC-17 profanity on this blog. Kudos for being a pioneer! I’m flattered.
Matthew