Convenience Chain with Nearly 500 New York Locations to Close 272 Stores

A major convenience store chain just became the retailer closing the fifth-highest number of stores in the U.S. so far this year.

It has been a rocky 2024 for famous retailers on a national and local scale.

Locally, several popular businesses permanently closed their doors in the past few weeks including Retro Fitness in Yorkville, Freihofer's bakery in Verona, SAL's Seafoods in Syracuse, and even Wells College in Aurora.

And just last week, a beloved business in Oneida was forced by New York State to cease operations.

Read More: Central New York Business Forced to Close "Effective Immediately"

When it comes to nationally-owned chains, the situation is even worse. Recently Applebee's and Red Lobster confirmed they're going belly up and will have to close a large amount of their portfolios to even survive. Major grocery chain Stop & Shop also said it will be forced to close several "underperforming" stores to continue operations.

New York is also home to one of the last remaining Kmarts in the entire world and, just this year, a once-thriving retailer that had over 60 locations in New York left the Northeast entirely.

Read More: Once Largest Retailer in US Shutters Last New York Area Store

CBS has been keeping track of all the major chains and counting all the store closures to happen this year.

Family Dollar leads the list with a confirmed 620 stores forever closing their doors while Rue21 landed in 2nd place, with 543 closures. In third and fourth place, respectively, were 99 Cent Only Stores (371) and CVS Health (315).

And, recently, the list was updated to include 7-Eleven in fifth place, forcing Rite Aid to fall into 6th. The massive chain is still struggling to stay afloat after closing 184 stores in 2023. In order to survive, the company confirmed it will be closing 272 more stores this year.

The announcement comes shortly after the conveniences giant announced a $1 billion deal with Sunoco that'll add roughly 200 new stores to its portfolio. So it may be likely the chain is closing "underperforming" locations, just like with Stop & Shop.

It should be noted 7-Eleven turns 100 in 2027, so it would be a shame for the chain to go belly up before them.

At this time, it is unknown what stores 7-Eleven has marked for closure and if any of them are in New York - especially the location on Kellogg Road in New Hartford. Currently, the chain operates 595 locations across the Empire State, according to ScrapeHero.

CBS estimates 7-Eleven's closures are a result of increasing competition from Amazon and other online rivals. In addition, Americans are cutting back spending due to the increasing cost of living, stagnant wages, and overall unyielding pace of inflation.

Get our free mobile app