Inside a church in the East Village last week, about 40 people raised alarms about another imminent addition to the ever-changing local landscape.

Over the years, residents of this rebellious neighborhood have joined forces to fight the profusion of bars in the area, the selling of community gardens to real estate developers and the possibility that high-rises would be added to the mostly low-rise skyline. Now the target of their ire is 7-Eleven, the convenience store giant whose expanding presence there has prompted concern about an invasion of national chains.

“Boring, bland and not New York,” said Bob Holman, a poet and the owner of the Bowery Poetry Café, who also denounced the stores as part of a process of “suburbanization” that catered to newer, younger arrivals in the neighborhood.

Not long ago it was impossible to find a Slurpee in Manhattan. Although there were 7-Eleven stores there from 1978 to 1982, they did not become a prominent presence until 2005, when the company began a new push in the city. There are now 32 stores in the borough, and last year the company announced plans to open about 100 more.