This Popular Convenience Store Is Shrinking For The 5th Year In A Row

In early April 2026, 7-Eleven's parent company, Seven & i Holdings, announced its plans to shut down 645 North American 7-Eleven stores by February 28, 2027. The news came as part of the company's Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025) earnings report, and analysis by C-Store Dive finds that 2026 will be the fifth year in a row that the chain will experience a drop in location volume. While the net loss of 7-Eleven locations will only actually be 440 — 205 new locations are slated to open by March 2027 — it will still mark the largest reduction in 7-Eleven's store count in recent years. 

However, even with these closures 7-Eleven will continue to dominate the convenience store market in the U.S. According to NACS Magazine, its locations are still more than double that of Circle K, the second largest chain in the country. As of March 2026, there were 13,618 7-Eleven locations in North America. Notably, 906 of those were wholesale gas stations, as opposed to strictly convenience stores, and that proportion could grow in the coming months. The FY2025 earnings report suggests that some of the locations currently slated for closure will be transformed into gas stations rather than shutdown altogether — a decision that could be a response to the fact that the company's fuel sales dropped from 2024 to 2025.

7-Eleven was already among the stores potentially on the hook for bankruptcy in 2025, and while the company's performance wasn't exactly catastrophic throughout the year, the numbers weren't great. In addition to decreasing gas sales, Seven & i Holdings also reported a 12.9% reduction in revenues compared to 2024, specifically noting that low-income North American customers spent less at 7-Eleven throughout the year. This isn't particularly surprising, as inflation caused the price of many household essentials to increase considerably in 2025. Even so, it's a bad omen for convenience stores everywhere, and could mean additional closures in the future.

While it's not yet clear exactly where in North America 7-Eleven intends to close or open locations, there are portions of the U.S. where convenience stores serve as the best option for locals to access even remotely healthy and affordable food options. With that said, the growth of affordable grocery stores like Aldi, which recently bought up hundreds of failing grocery stores, could eventually help fill some of the gaps left behind by 7-Eleven's shrinking footprint. However, in the short term, these closures will surely be felt by shoppers.