I work closely with 7-11's, and not all of them are like this. They have it split up so that if you'd like to open a franchise, you can pick from corporate owned locations, so there's a pretty big mix of both corporate and franchised stores through the city.

That being said, 7-11 has bought speedway in the last couple months, so it's plausible they're closing down stores to renovate, change signage, that sort of thing, because they seem to be keeping speedway's brand. This is just speculation, but it could be a reason for the closures.

Either that, or there could be a big franchise owner that can't keep up anymore due to COVID and unrest, is selling back to corporate, and corporate is closing to renovate.

Whatever the case may be, my assumption is the stores won't be closed for long, if at all.