Today, on the 11th of July, or 7/11, the convenience store by the same name celebrates its birthday. On a day that ranks right up there with free Ben & Jerry’s cone day, Krispy Crème Kreme donut day, and Starbucks Coffee day, hoards of people flock to the ubiquitous corner store to receive a complimentary, yet surprisingly small dose of frozen sugary goodness: the Slurpee. Upon reading a recent press release, we got excited to step out on our lunch break and pick up a slushy cherry-coke, or maybe try the new flavor with the enticing, though somewhat nauseating marketing slogan, “Looks purple,” but “Tastes vanilla.”

This year is 7-Eleven’s 79th year in business, longer than any other convenience retailer in the world. To celebrate, participating 7-Eleven® stores across America will serve up 3 million free 7.11-ounce Slurpee® drinks in special “Happy Birthday!” cups to customers as long as the cups last.

But don’t run out the door just yet. With a little investigating, we discovered that the D.C. stores are not “participating” in this free-for-all. There haven’t been any signs or advertisements, and an anonymous, angry local 7-11 worker with whom we spoke over the phone shouted that we would have to buy our Slurpees just like everyone else. So we went straight to the source and contacted the 7-11 headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Apparently, as the customer service agent explained, only the corporate stores in Texas, Florida and Canada are taking part in the birthday celebration, while franchise establishments such as those in D.C. force us to suffer and–GASP–actually pay for our icy beverage.

A message to 7-11: our mouths are dry, and we aren’t moving to Canada. We’ll let you find a way to make it up to us, just not in the form of “Free Day-Old Taquito” or “Free The-Last Shriveled Up Big Bite on the Grill” Day.