Mac's Stores, Winks Stores, Couche-Tard Stores
Mac's in LaSalle, Ontario. The Mac's name has been in Canada for years.
Every kid growing up in Ontario grew up going to Mac's to buy candy and soda.
Other names Mac's operates under are Becker and Winks.
Taken April 3, 2004 by Andy Songal.
A Mac's sign in Windsor, Ontario, 2003. using the original cat character, not the owl.
From Derek Cahill of Mac's Stores.
Here is a photo of the last Winks store in Windsor, Ontario, taken in 2003.
Photo contributed by Derek Cahill of Mac's Stores.
Some people might not remember that the Mac's owl character
originated with the Winks stores. Originally, Mac's character was a cat,
as seen on the Mac's photo (above the Winks photo).
When Couche-Tard bought Winks, they inherited the owl.
Couche-Tard, the parent company of Mac's, are also using the owl on their
own-branded stores. It gets complicated.
Here are the cropped and zoomed photos of the Mac's cat and the Winks owl.
Just to mess things up a little, here is a Couche-Tard store using the owl logo.
This is store number A13 in Laval, Quebec. Photo taken around Feb. 2004.
Photo was contributed by Derek Cahill of Mac's Stores.
A Mac's selling Petro Canada branded gasoline on Tuscany Blvd.,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Taken April 2004 by Travis Meginbir.
Mac's existed for a very short time in the U.S.
After buying 43 of the bankrupt Clark locations, the Bigfoot (Johnson Oil of
Columbus, Indiana) locations, the Handy Andy locations in Indianapolis,
and six former BP-Amoco locations in the Lafayette, Indiana area,
the parent company of Mac's (Couche-Tard of Canada) www.couche-tard.com
also bought out the major convenience store chain Circle K.
Of the various brands converted to Mac's in late 2003-early 2004,
most if not all have been converted to Circle K.
This particular location at Ferry Street and Earl Avenue in Lafayette, Indiana
started out as a Wareco, then some time before 2000 converted to Clark when
Clark bought out Wareco. The pump nozzles still said Wareco throughout the
lifetime as a Clark!
Then in late 2003 the store converted to Mac's as seen here.
As of October, 2004 they have now covered over the Mac's sign with a
Circle K canvas and added Circle K decals on the storefront.
I am presenting these six photos as a memory to the brief time that
Mac's existed here. Photos taken May 8, 2004 by Sonya Cirillo.
Above six are of the Mac's location on Ferry at Earl Ave, Lafayette, Indiana.
Taken May 8, 2004 by Sonya Cirillo.
The Mac's owl is painted over, and a Circle K canvas attached
as seen on Oct. 11, 2004 at the above Ferry Street location.
Photo by John Cirillo.
The storefront decals are also changed to Circle K.
Photo taken Oct. 11, 2004 by John Cirillo. Ferry Street location.
A Mac's with BP gas in Springfield, Illinois on IL97.
Taken in Nov. 2004 by Robert Droz.
I'm guessing this has been rebranded to Circle K by now.
Walt Wimer captured a former Clark location with a Mac's canvas
covering the sign. This station is located in Paris, Illinois,
at the south edge of downtown on US 150/Ill 1. Taken Sept. 17, 2003