From supermarket-sized Buc-ees with trash-free parking lots, dozens of gas pumps, sparkling bathrooms, and free electric vehicle (EV) charging spaces for weary drivers to Murphy USA convenience store’s strategically shadowing the Walmart footprint, the industry is shedding its former reputation as quick-exit, gas-and-go stations with overpriced fountain drinks, snacks, and food, experts say.
“Our CEO likes to say nearly every American lives within 10 minutes of a gas station,” Vontier spokeswoman Nicole Beck told The Epoch Times. “So, when we talk about food deserts and things like that, the gas station and the convenience store are critical infrastructures.”
That’s why the entire convenience-store landscape is undergoing a wholesale transformation following the pandemic, said Beck. Publicly traded Vontier is part of that change by providing digitally enabled equipment and solutions for convenience stores, ranging from fuel pump automation and EV charging management systems to car wash technology and vehicle repair tools.
The transformation Vontier is seeing is also behind the post-pandemic ramp-up in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by convenience store chains regionally and nationwide. In 2023 and 2024, more than a dozen key acquisitions in which top convenience-store brands changed hands occurred.
Jesse Betzner, senior director of consumer investment banking at Boston-based Capstone Partners, said the current macroeconomic climate and changing consumer preferences have forced many convenience-store chains to reevaluate product offerings. Those operators, mainly in the large and middle market, have increasingly prioritized in-store experiences to attract customers, bolster gross profit, and weather declining fuel sales, Betzner told The Epoch Times.
“The number-one reason being that the market is still extremely fragmented. So, there’s still a lot of room for contingent consolidation in the sector, especially in this day and age where costs are skyrocketing and inflation is a big problem,” said Betzner. “The small teams, especially, are having a hard time competing with the big teams. Some of them are just going to eventually have to consider an exit to a larger [chain].”
Betzner also noted that interested buyers, including national chains and private equity firms, are prioritizing stores with extra square footage or acreage to expand in the future. He said the growth of supersized convenience stores like Buc-ees is not a one-off phenomenon.
“Every time Buc-ee’s announces expansion plans into a specific market, it has a big ripple effect on local competition,” he said. “But the ‘new normal’ is that Buc-ees inevitably will take away a lot of market share from the incumbent competition.”
In the current fragmented environment, Betzner said the industry is also ripe for “buy-and-build” acquisitions, and private equity firms are uniquely poised to grow their platform companies. On the sell side of the industry, private equity firms seeking an exit strategy are seeking deals with bigger chains looking to expand into attractive markets. He noted larger operators, such as Murphy USA, 7-Eleven, Circle K, and Maverik, owned by private holding company FJ Management.
However, the biggest driver of M&A activity in 2025 is the pending outcome of Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.’s blockbuster proposal to buy Tokyo-based Seven & i Holdings Co. for $47 billion. Couche-Tard, owner of the Circle K brand, is the second-largest convenience-store operator in the United States with 7,000 stores. Seven & I, parent of Texas-based 7-Eleven, operates more than 9,200 of its namesake stores in the United States.
“It certainly has created a large hoopla in the market,” he said. “[That] announcement is having a bit of an overhand effect on the M&A market. Whenever there is uncertainty around a big deal ... it can have an impact on other sales activity and might lead some sellers to put a pause on going to market.”
