Seven & i Holdings, the Tokyo-based convenience store giant behind the 7-Eleven brand, has quietly closed the door on a potential partnership with Poland's Zabka Group — Europe's largest convenience operator — after the two sides could not find mutually agreeable terms. The withdrawal is less an ending than a redirection: the company remains committed to planting roots in Europe, even as it navigates declining share prices, a rebuffed foreign takeover bid, and the deeper challenge of introducing a retail category that much of the continent has yet to fully embrace. In the long arc of global co