Mac's is a franchised chain of convenience stores that operate in Ontario and Western Canada. Mac's is owned by Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Mac's Milk Limited was incorporated in Ontario on April 4, 1962 by Kenneth and Carl McGowen. The name was changed to Mac's Convenience Stores Limited May 7, 1975. On July 5, 1963, Silverwood Dairies Limited acquired 40% of the shares of Mac's Milk Limited, and increased their holding to 80% in March 29, 1968, and 100% on January 12, 1972.
In 1971, eighteen convenience stores operating under the "Little Z Convenience Stores" banner were purchased from Zehr's Supermarkets. In 1974, thirteen Mini-Mart convenience stores in Vancouver were purchased from a subsidiary of the Weston organization. Also in 1974, seven Starlite Variety Stores operating in Windsor were purchased. In 1976, shares of Royal Oak Dairy were purchased by Silverwood Dairies Limited, including operations of convenience stores under the Bantam and Astro names.
In 1994, most Mac's stores in Quebec were sold to Couche-Tard (who would eventually end up buying them in 1999), rebranding Mac's stores in Quebec as Dépan-Escompte Couche-Tard.
Silcorp, the parent company of Mac's, acquired assets of rival Becker's in November, 1996. Effective April 14, 1999, Silcorp shares (including the Mac's and Becker's brands), were purchased by Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. Mac's dropped the longtime logo with a cat to Couche-Tard's owl logo.
In May 2006, Mac's introduced a memorable advertising campaign for their Froster beverage. The campaign centres on the Whack flavour and uses double entendres involving the word, such as "I think I could have a Whack every day if I could," as well as humorously censoring "Whack" in the commercials.
In May 2007, Mac's introduced a controversial advertising campaign for their new WTF Froster beverage. Targeting primarily net savvy teenage boys, the campaign includes posters and a series of viral internet video ads. The controversy stems from the use of the WTF internet slang acronym ("what the fuck"), a poster of a nun and goat bowing in the presence of a cup of WTF and video ads portraying sexual innuendo and bizarre or questionable conduct. In response Mac's has pulled the more controversial ads and has stated that it intended WTF to refer to "What's the flavour?"
Mac's stores sell Seattle's Best brewed coffee in Western Canada, and A.L. Van Houtte coffee in Ontario.
Mascot
The original mascot for Mac's was a cat wearing a tam o'shanter carrying a jug of milk.[1] In 1999, it was changed to the winking owl (seen above), which was the mascot for the 'Winks' chain of convenience stores and gas stations.
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