This month, the Olympics feature elite athletes who have trained their entire lives to set records and win medals.

In Portland, Simon Xu realized there was another option: pick a record no one had thought to train for.

“I went to all 54 Plaid Pantry stores in Portland in one day in eight hours,” Xu said.

Xu woke up one day this fall and decided to accomplish a feat no one had asked for: driving to every single Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland. The plan would take them across the entire city — 54 stops in eight hours, with no medal at the end.

Why do this?

“Good question. I am not so sure about that,” Xu said. “There’s not a lot of point in this. But I did it anyway.”

Weird projects are not out of character for Xu. They once raced TriMet bus No. 19 on foot — and won. They said they love an unconventional challenge. This time, they were also testing out free route-planning software they found online.

“And for some reason it was like midnight,” Xu said. “I was like, what if I just plug into the location of every single Plaid Pantry in Portland and see what happens?”

Plaid Pantry was not a random choice.

“I love Portland. I’ve been living here for about five years and it’s probably the only place I’ve had in my life that truly felt like home,” Xu said.

Xu moved to Portland from their hometown Suzhou, China to study at Reed College and fell in love with the city. But their visa will eventually expire, and they will likely have to leave. That prompted an idea.

“What if I, in my tenure as a Portlander, do something that’s so utterly, unmistakably Portland,” Xu said.

Xu put out a poll on social media asking what was the most Portland chain, offering Plaid Pantry, Burgerville and McMenamins as options. Plaid Pantry won by a large margin.

Xu started the run hungry at about 1 p.m. At first, they bought something at every store as checkpoint but soon realized that was unsustainable.

“I kind of gave up after the first 10 or 11 because it was getting too much,” Xu said. “I only need so many snacks. I only need so many Slim Jims.”

By mid-afternoon, Xu had consumed what they described as a Plaid Pantry diet.

“So yeah, that was my entire day’s worth of sustenance sorted,” Xu said.

As Xu hit their limit of sodium and sugar, they were also getting tired of challenge after just two hours.

“I feel like the hardest part of this is just kind of getting the motivation to complete this,” Xu said.

Still, they kept going — through traffic, across bridges and from one yellow, red and blue sign to the next.

Along the way, Xu noticed small details, including that the St. Johns Plaid Pantry had an apostrophe where there should not be one. They also took a picture of every store and uploaded it to Wikimedia.

At a Plaid Pantry near Portland State University, a man outside tried to barter.

“He was like, ‘What if I give you this charger and you buy me a one liter of Mountain Dew and a big bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos?’” Xu said.

Instead, Xu bought enough Mountain Dew and Cheetos for both of them, and they sat together on the curb.

“So we had our Mountain Dews together, we had some Cheetos. We chatted a little bit,” Xu said. “I didn’t take the charger because I already had one.”

Seven hours and 49 minutes and 97.79 miles after starting, Xu reached the final store at Southeast Knapp Street and Milwaukie Avenue in Sellwood.

“Yeah, I was very much done with it,” Xu said. “I was so tired. I just went home.”

Plaid Pantry’s CEO Jonathan Polonsky said he was impressed with Xu’s expedition after seeing it on Reddit, calling it ‘one of the most Portland things.’

Xu described the project as “more of a silly joke to amuse myself and my friends.”

Asked whether they would recommend others try to beat the record, Xu was blunt.

“I would not. It’s kind of pointless,” Xu said. “So my advice to someone that’s looking to do this: first — don’t do it.”

But if someone does try, Xu suggested choosing a time with less traffic. Xu has no plans to expand the Plaid Pantry challenge to include the stores outside of Portland city limits, which would be 108 stores total.

Xu hopes to stay out of their car entirely for the their next project: They are planning to visit every library by transit.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/15/portland-plaid-pantry-record-love-letter/