The company has approximately 16,700 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Japan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.

[3] Founded by current chairman Alain Bouchard, the corporation is based in Laval, Quebec, Canada, a suburb of Montreal.

In French, "couche-tard" means "(the type of person who) goes to bed late", with connotations very similar to "night owl" in English.

In 1992, the chain gradually converted to the new discount banner "Dépan-Escompte", beginning with 34 stores mostly located in the Quebec City area.

[5] In the summer of 1994, Couche-Tard made a deal to acquire the 86 convenience stores from the Perette chain which had filed for bankruptcy protection in June 1994.

[7][8] In May 1997, Couche-Tard acquired C Corp, a subsidiary of Provigo that owned the chains Provi-Soir in Quebec, Winks in Ontario and Red Rooster in Alberta.

[11] The new Provi-Soir, basically a combination of rebranded Couche-Tard and 7 Jours locations, does not feature the owl mascot from the original chain and its logotype is completely different than in its last incarnation.

Similarly, Silcorp had consolidated several of the largest Ontario convenience-store chains, such as Mac's and Becker's, under its ownership before being itself acquired by Couche-Tard.

In 2001, Couche-Tard broke into the American market with the acquisition of 172 Bigfoot convenience stores from Johnson Oil Company of Columbus, Indiana.

[16][17] On September 23, 2015, Couche-Tard announced that it would relaunch the Circle K brand, and extend it to all of its stores in English Canada, the United States, and Scandinavia.

[30][31] In March 2023, Couche-Tard announced the acquisition of 1,600 TotalEnergies service stations in Germany and the Netherlands, for an undisclosed sum.

The following month, the company signed an agreement to buy 112 service stations and convenience stores from MAPCO Express in the United States.

It was also announced that GetGo stores would continue to offer Giant Eagle's MyPerks rewards program after the sale concludes.

In the United States, approximately 470 On the Run stores are owned or franchised by Alimentation Couche-Tard under an agreement with ExxonMobil announced April 29, 2009.

Due to competition concerns, most of CST's Ultramar operations in Canada were not included in the deal, which were sold off separately to Parkland Fuel Corporation.

This transaction, which also includes surplus property and a logistics fleet, complements Couche-Tard's significant global presence, which encompasses over 14,000 stores in 24 countries and territories and employs approximately 122,000 people.

Concurrently, Majors Management LLC acquired 192 MAPCO-branded stores and additional MAPCO assets, aiming to enhance service and expand both companies' market reach in the southeastern U.S.[52] In January 2021, Couche-Tard and Carrefour SA announced that they are looking at operational partnerships after takeover talks were abandoned.