C-Store Dive doesn’t operate on a 24-hour news cycle, but we've always joked that a reason we’d need to work on a Saturday would be if, say, Circle K and 7-Eleven announced a merger. 

It was, at the time, a hypothetical scenario. An announcement so seismic that whatever we were doing in that moment would take a backseat to covering this news.

That changed this week, when one of the most potentially groundbreaking announcements I’ve personally seen in my half-decade covering the c-store industry was announced.

Alimentation Couche-Tard, parent of Circle K convenience stores, revealed that it made a bid to acquire Seven & i Holdings — the Japanese owner of 7-Eleven. Less than an hour later, the Canadian company made another huge announcement. But more on that in a bit.

Couche-Tard didn’t offer many specifics of its intentions, other than that its proposal is “friendly” and “non-binding,” and that it would work with Seven & i on an agreement that benefits both companies’ customers, employees and shareholders.

In a separate announcement, Seven & i acknowledged Couche-Tard’s bid — made for an undisclosed amount — noting that its board of directors has formed a committee to review the proposal as well as its standalone future as a company before it makes any decisions.

Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard operates more than 7,100 c-stores in the U.S. and 16,700 locations globally. It’s the second-largest c-store retailer in the U.S. and one of the biggest in North America.

But 7-Eleven is a different beast. Based in Irving, Texas domestically, the convenience retailer has more than 84,000 locations across 19 countries, including over 13,000 in the U.S. That’s nearly double the size of Couche-Tard in America, and five times its size overseas.

So when I saw Couche-Tard’s bombshell announcement on Monday, yeah, I had to immediately stop cleaning my cat’s litter box and get to my desk. As of now, industry experts foresee the odds of that deal actually happening as slim, although not impossible. 

But Couche-Tard wasn’t done. Just 30 minutes after this announcement, the company shared that it had agreed to acquire GetGo Café + Markets, the convenience store arm of supermarket chain Giant Eagle. The deal, expected to close in the calendar year 2025, includes all 270 GetGo stores across Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana.

GetGo, which has been owned by Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle since 2003, has grown in popularity over the years for its food and coffee offerings, drive-thrus locations and myPerks loyalty platform, which is also offered at Giant Eagle grocery stores.

Couche-Tard dropping two industry-altering announcements within a half hour of each other underscores not only the fast and successful growth the company has seen in recent years, but its sweeping plans to become the top c-store retailer in the U.S. and abroad.

Steady growth

Monday’s announcements continue a run of incremental growth for Couche-Tard, which has acquired stores at a rapid clip over the past year and a half.

Its buyout of GetGo is far and away its biggest acquisition domestically since the start of last year. But other notable U.S. purchases Couche-Tard has made during that time frame have included 112 c-stores from Mapco and 44 locations — doubling its footprint in Arkansas — from Big Red Stores.

But Couche-Tard hasn’t shied away from mega international deals, either. In March 2023, the company agreed to acquire nearly 2,200 retail sites across Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg from European fuel giant TotalEnergies for $3.3 billion. That deal closed last December, and it grew Couche-Tard’s European footprint by 80%.

Couche-Tard isn’t only acquiring convenience stores to grow its network. It’s also building brand-new locations. 

Last October, the company revealed plans to build 500 new-to-industry (NTI) sites across rural and suburban markets by fiscal 2028. While some of these locations are coming to Europe and in Hong Kong, 90% of these stores will be in North America, the company noted at the time.

These plans come during a period of change for Couche-Tard, which will welcome new CEO Alex Miller next month. In addition to overseeing the company’s already ambitious growth trajectory, Miller — Couche-Tard’s current chief operating officer — will soon be tasked with leading an integration of 270 GetGo locations and trying to close on what would be one of the biggest c-store M&A deals in history.

There could be blockades by the Federal Trade Commision, as well as a straight up rejection by 7-Eleven. But even if this gargantuan deal doesn’t happen this year or next, the table has been set for conversations between the companies to continue moving forward.