Mac's Convenience Stores (commonly known as Mac's) is a chain of
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
s in
Canada. The company was divided into three geographic business units: eastern Canada, central Canada, and western Canada. It had been owned and operated by
Alimentation Couche-Tard since 1999. Since 2017, it served as one of Couche-Tard's two main banners in English-speaking Canada, alongside
Circle K. The brand is currently being phased out in favour of the Circle K banner.
History

Kenneth (Ken) and Carl McGowen incorporated Mac's Milk Limited in
Ontario on April 4, 1962. On July 5, 1963, Silverwood Dairies Limited acquired 40% of the shares of Mac's Milk Limited, and increased its holding to 80% on March 29, 1968, and 100% on January 12, 1972.
In 1971, the company purchased 18 convenience stores operating under the "Little Z Convenience Stores" banner from
Zehrs Markets. In 1974, it bought thirteen Mini-Mart convenience stores in
Vancouver from a subsidiary of
George Weston Limited and seven Starlite Variety Stores operating in
Windsor, Ontario.

The company was renamed "Mac's Convenience Stores Limited" on May 7, 1975. In 1976, Silverwood Dairies Limited purchased shares of Royal Oak Dairy, including operations of convenience stores under the Bantam and Astro names.
In 1994, the company sold most of the Mac's stores in Quebec to Alimentation Couche-Tard Ltd. Mac's stores in Quebec were renamed "Dépan-Escompte Couche-Tard". Silcorp, the parent company of Mac's, acquired 163
Southern Ontario stores, and assets of rival
Becker's in November 1996. On April 14, 1999, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. purchased Silcorp (including the Mac's and Becker's chains). Mac's dropped its longtime cat logo, and replaced it with Couche-Tard's owl logo.
On September 23, 2015, Alimentation Couche-Tard announced that as part of a global re-branding, all Mac's stores would be converted to Couche-Tard's
Circle K banner; the Canadian renaming began in May 2017.
Some stores across Canada continue to use the Mac's logo.
Marketing
The original
mascot for Mac's was a cat named MacTavish (seen below), wearing a
Tam o' shanter and a
kilt, holding a jug of milk. Following Mac's acquisition by Couche-Tard in 1999, it was changed to the winking owl named Hibou, which was the mascot for Couche-Tard's convenience stores and gas stations in Quebec.
References
External links
Mac's – Eastern Canada official website(archived)
Mac's – Western Canada official website(archived)
{{Convenience stores
Alimentation Couche-Tard
Companies based in Toronto
Retail companies established in 1961
Convenience stores of Canada
Dairy products companies of Canada
1961 establishments in Ontario