What a potential merger of Circle K and 7-Eleven means for restaurants

What does the potential Circle K-7-Eleven deal mean for restaurants? This week's episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Hannah Hammond, a senior editor with RB sister publication CSP Daily News. CSP covers convenience stores, and I wanted to talk with Hammond about the big news of the week—maybe the year—in the convenience-store industry: The proposed acquisition of Seven & i holdings by Alimentation Couche-Tard. Seven & i is the Japanese owner of 7-Eleven and Alimentation Coche-Tard, or ACT, is the owner of Circle K. 7-Eleven is the country and world’s biggest convenience store chain. Circle K is No. 2 in the U.S. This was the equivalent of Starbucks proposing to buy McDonald’s. Hammond talks about the deal and what it means for the companies themselves and the c-store business and whether it could get through the FTC. We also talk about what this means for the respective chains’ growing competition with quick-service restaurants. And we talk about all kinds of other c-store stuff, including Wawa and Buccee’s and why convenience stores can’t spell the word Quick. We’re talking c-stores on A Deeper Dive, so please check it out.