country Australia The Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS), the peak body for Australian Convenience Stores, defines a convenience store as a "retail business with the primary emphasis placed on providing the public with a convenient location to quickly purchase from an array of consumable products, predominantly food and beverages, services as well as petrol." The product mix includes: food to go, beverages, dispensed/barista coffee, snacks (including confectionery), tobacco, basic groceries, ice, petrol and carwash. Stores may offer services such as ATMs, "click & collect", gas bottle exchange, money transfer and lottery tickets. A key feature of convenience stores is their extended hours of operation. Many are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The majority of convenience stores in Australia are small businesses, being either independently owned or operated under franchise or licence agreement. The industry comprises over 6,000 stores and employs well over 40,000 people as of mid-2018. The Australian convenience channel merchandise sales are valued at $8.4 billion (excluding petrol sales) according to the AACS State of the Industry Report 2017. Australia has a flourishing convenience industry with a number of well-known convenience brands including: 7-Eleven, Ampol, NightOwl, Ezymart, BP, APCO, Coles Express, On The Run, Viva Energy, Freedom Fuels and Puma. Canada Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., which operates Couche-Tard, Provi-Soir, Dépanneur 7, Circle K, Mac's, Winks, and Becker's, is the largest convenience store chain in Canada and receives its products through Core-Mark International, a North American distribution company specializing in fresh convenience. Another large chain is Quickie Mart (whose name predates the fictitious "Kwik-E-Mart" featured on The Simpsons). The world's largest convenience retailer, 7-Eleven, has about 500 Canadian locations from British Columbia to Ontario. Worldwide, the highest number of the chain's Slurpee beverages are sold in Winnipeg, Manitoba and the city has been awarded the title of the "Slurpee Capital of the World" for many years running. Marketing itself as "more than just a convenience store", there are over 260 Hasty Market locations throughout Ontario and one in British Columbia. In addition to chain convenience stores, there are also many independently owned convenience stores in Canada. Convenience stores are also commonly referred to as "corner stores", "mini-marts" or "variety stores" in some regions of Canada. In the French-speaking province of Quebec, a convenience store is known as a "dépanneur" or "dep" for short, even among some when speaking in English. "Dépanneur" translates as 'troubleshooter'. Chile