Unraveling the Mystery of San Francisco 7-Eleven Stores Selling Onigiri With the Mayor’s Face on Them

In case you didn’t know, convenience store food in Japan is kind of a big deal, which is why plenty of American ears perked up at the news that 7-Eleven — the Japanese version — might be expanding its presence in the States. It’s also likely why people of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, got so excited about a thread announcing that a number of San Francisco 7-Eleven stores have started selling onigiri, the triangle-shaped rice balls sold at the convenience store’s outlets in Asia.

“Hell yes! Mayor London Breed partnered with 7-Eleven on a new initiative to bring Japanese onigiri to convenience stores in San Francisco,” reads a thread from a user who posts under the name Danielle Baskin. “I’m beyond thrilled!” The six-part thread, posted late on Thursday evening, goes on to call out the specific store where the user allegedly purchased the onigiri, lists the price ($2.89), and includes what appear to be photos of the food item complete with San Francisco mayor London Breed’s face on them. The user says she was alerted about the “promo deal” via 7-Eleven’s Instagram stories.

Other users responded positively to the post, expressing excitement that the item would be available here in the United States. “Jealous!! People in SF need to make them popular so they roll them out nationwide,” one user replied. Others expressed confusion over why the mayor would participate in the collaboration. “Ok cool but why is her face on it?” one user posted, regarding the mayor’s photo allegedly appearing on the snack. “Why is the mayor selling convenience store food?” asked another.

Well, the short answer to that question: She isn’t. On Thursday morning a spokesperson for the mayor confirmed to Eater SF that Breed’s office has no knowledge of any partnership with 7-Eleven and did not participate in a product launch. Additionally, during in-person visits to two 7-Eleven locations on Thursday morning — including the 221 Sansome location mentioned in the thread — there were no onigiri (featuring the mayor’s face or otherwise) in stock. Staff at both locations confirmed they had no knowledge of a collaboration with the mayor and had never stocked onigiri in the stores.

But as it turns out, the originator of the onigiri tweets is known around town as a “conceptual artist” as SFGATE has previously reported. Eater SF reached out to Baskin, who confirmed the Breed-branded, 7-Eleven onigiri aren’t a real thing... yet. The point of creating this made-up concept, she says, was to show that there is demand for convenient, inexpensive, snackable items such as the onigiri present at 7-Elevens throughout Asia.

Danielle Baskin

Inspired by a recent trip to Japan, Baskin called onigiri a “perfect snack” and wanted to prove that there is a market in San Francisco for it — and that creating this “alternate reality” where onigiri are available at local convenience stores would show a proof of concept that could become successful. “In general, I like doing action — not saying what should happen, but doing what should happen,” Baskin says. “I think if I hadn’t staged the onigiri, and I had just kept saying, ‘We should have onigiri,’ I think we would stay dreaming, as opposed to actually going through a staged reality. I think that that creates more of a deeper excitement where it’s not far off, like, ‘Oh, this could be possible.’”

For what it’s worth, the photos of onigiri-happy folks are real; to pull it off, Baskin created the onigiri at home and packaged it inside specialty plastic wrap that she purchased while in Japan. She then asked friends to show up at the 221 Sansome location of 7-Eleven on the morning of March 20, where she says a sizeable group showed off their enthusiasm for the prototype onigiri made by Baskin. As for folding Breed into the deception, Baskin says she learned about the “It All Starts Here” campaign, a civic pride initiative meant to bolster the city’s image, and Baskin felt like the idea of San Francisco being the first U.S. city to have 7-Eleven onigiri made sense with the group’s modus operandi. “The response to this is really interesting, people are tagging their mayors and asking them to bring onigiri to 7-Eleven,” Baskin says. “People are saying, ‘This is so cool that a mayor would do this.’ I think it is cool, in a way; it makes the city more fun, more livable.”

But for those who were invested in convenience store onigiri options and are sad to hear the tweets are fake news, Baskin does have some words for you: “If anyone is upset that you can’t get onigiri here, don’t worry — if we all are excited, it will happen, it’ll become reality,” Baskin says. “I don’t want this to be seen as, ‘I tricked you, ha, this doesn’t exist.’ I am demonstrating that this can exist.”