Convenience store giant 7-Eleven plans to close 645 stores in North America during this fiscal year, another cutback for the chain, which has been downsizing for several years and has been shifting to a more prominent food-focused format.
The 7-Eleven franchise will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. The first 7-Eleven store opened in Dallas as Southland Ice Co. in 1927.
Seven & i Holdings, the chain’s Japanese parent company, made the announcement during a fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call on April 9. The 2026 fiscal year began in March.
According to C-Store Dive, the chain will close the locations by Feb. 28, 2027, but did not indicate which stores would be closed. It would be the fifth consecutive year that the company has closed more stores than it opened.
The total number of closures includes stores that will be converted into wholesale fuel stores, which 7-Eleven omits from its count of convenience stores.
Seven & i Holdings added that it expects to open more than 200 locations in North America during the next fiscal year. Those new, larger locations will mirror the trend set by 7-Eleven’s competitors.
Faced with competition from companies such as Wawa, Sheetz and Buc-ee’s, which focus on larger stores and better food quality, 7-Eleven is weeding out its smaller stores for a larger imprint in the market.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Seven & i Holdings said it would delay the planned initial public offering for 7-Eleven’s North American chain until the 2027 fiscal year.
Stephen Dacus, the company’s CEO, said consumers are under economic pressure because of higher energy prices, the newspaper reported. He added that drivers may travel less if gasoline prices remain high for an extended period.
For the new fiscal year that began in March, Seven & i Holdings projected a 9.4% decline in revenue and a 7.8% drop in its net profit, The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to reports, 7-Eleven closed 373 North American stores during fiscal 2025, and 474 the year before that.
The last time 7‑Eleven opened more stores than it closed was in 2022, when it opened 3,806 stores and closed 477, the Delaware News Journal reported.
The proposed 645 closures represent about a 5% reduction, Fast Company reported. There are 12,272 7-Eleven stores in North America, according to the website. They are located in 30 states, with the largest number of locations in Florida, Texas and California, according to the News Journal.
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