The sale of Speedway LLC certainly had its ups and downs. But despite the starts, the stops and the delays, Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) and 7-Eleven Inc. officially sealed the deal on May 14, paving the way for Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven to cement its place among the top chains in the U.S. convenience store industry.
The acquisition diversifies 7-Eleven’s presence to 47 of the 50 most populated metro areas in the United States, and expands its company-operated store footprint as well. So, it comes as no surprise that 7-Eleven keeps its crown as the No. 1 chain on the 2021 Convenience Store News Top 100 ranking. According to data provided to CSNews by Nielsen TDLinx, the retailer boasted a total U.S. store count of 12,973 locations as of June 2021 — broken out to 5,282 company-operated stores and 7,691 franchise stores.
That figure far outnumbers No. 2 chain Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.’s 5,833 total U.S. store count, and new No. 3 chain Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s General Stores Inc.’s 2,365 total store count. (MPC was previously in the No. 3 spot.)
Aside from the top three chains, EG America, GPM Investments LLC, Wawa Inc., QuikTrip Corp., Kwik Trip Inc., Pilot Co. and Sheetz Inc. round out the top 10 on this year’s Top 100 ranking. The top 10 retailers account for a combined 28,041 industry stores (or 19 percent) — and of those, the top three retailers account for a combined 21,171 stores (or 15 percent).
The Convenience Store News Top 100 is the industry’s longest-running accounting of the largest convenience store chains by store count.
Click below to download the complete 2021 ranking.