MEXICO CITY — Convenience stores are springing up across Mexico at a fast clip. More than 7,600 chain stores have opened—a fivefold increase in less than 10 years— along with thousands of independent operators, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Although those numbers are small when compared with the more than 140,000 convenience stores in the United States, Mexico’s largest chains have major expansion plans in the works to take advantage of that nation’s changing lifestyle and consumer tastes.

Two-income families and longer commutes in urban areas have increased the appeal of convenience stores, the newspaper reports. “We saw a good opportunity,” said Luis Chapa, 7-Eleven Mexico's president and director general. Chapa’s family opened the country’s first convenience mart in 1976, and the company now operates 700 outlets and is looking to open 100 a year in each of the next three years.

Not being able to sell gasoline in Mexico has slowed expansion for 7-Eleven and other chains; approximately 80 percent of U.S. convenience stores sell fuel. In the typical U.S. outlet, fuel accounts for three-quarters of its revenue and 40 percent of profit, as well as driving traffic to the stores, writes the newspaper.

However, south of the border, only two in 10 consumers own vehicles, and state oil company Pemex sells most of the gasoline. Convenience store owners can partner with Pemex franchisees to have their stores near Pemex pumps, but unfair practices by the fuel company can damage the stores’ reputation, the newspaper reports.

To fuel growth, Mexican convenience store operators use soft drinks and beer, and the nation’s brewers and soda manufacturers use convenience stores to push their products.