This October, 24,000+ convenience and fuel retail industry stakeholders will gather in Las Vegas for the NACS Show. These industry leaders will spend four days learning, buying, selling and networking at an event where everything is designed to help your bottom line—and be fun.

On the Floor

Attendees will have the opportunity to discover thousands of the latest products and services that c-stores sell and use everyday on the 433,000 square foot Expo floor, which will showcase over 1,200 exhibitors. The Expo is split into five categories:

• Fuel Equipment & Services
• Food Equipment & Foodservice Programs
• Facility Development & Store Operations
• Merchandise
• Technology

The Expo also features a New Exhibitor Area and the Cool New Products Preview Room. The Preview Room is loaded with new innovations, products, services and other growth opportunities for your business. Each product has product details and exhibitor contact information that you can save to make a to-do list for the rest of the Expo floor.

Check out the website to see when these areas open—the New Exhibitor Area opens an hour earlier than the general Expo floor and the Cool New Products Preview Room has some buyer-only hours for retailers.

NACS Show General Sessions

Four days of NACS Show general sessions will focus on how your stores can deliver an amazing customer experience. Each session will feature a lively mix of world-class leaders, compelling insights from Ideas 2 Go videos and industry experts who will examine how our industry can enhance convenience retail through food, technology, design and people.

On October 10, the final day of the NACS Show, the closing General Session will feature renowned chefs Andrew Zimmern and David Chang. Both chefs are big fans of convenience stores and their food offers. The pair will share their passion for food and how convenience stores can continue to elevate their foodservice to stand out among the competition. The session includes a live cooking demonstration showcasing a few simple ideas to evolve traditional offerings—plus a recipe challenge to create a unique dish using common c-store items.

Andrew Zimmern is an Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning chef, TV personality, writer and social justice advocate. A star of culinary shows on Travel Channel and The Food Network and the host of two Emmy-nominated shows on the Magnolia Network, Zimmern has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding through food. His newest shows are Field to Fire on Outdoor Channel, premiering on September 23, and Wild Game Kitchen on Tastemade. He was a guest on the NACS Convenience Matters podcast “How Celebrity Chef Andrew Zimmern Is Changing C-Store Foodservice” in March 2024. (Check out conveniencematters.com for all podcasts.)

Chang is founder of the Momofuku restaurant group and Majordomo Media. Since opening his first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar, in 2004, he has been recognized as GQ’s Man of the Year and a Time 100 honoree. David also is the host of The Dave Chang Show podcast and three documentary series: “Ugly Delicious,” “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner,” and “The Next Thing You Eat.” His cookbooks and memoir are New York Times bestsellers. In 2019, he opened a convenience store called Peach Mart in New York City.

Ideas 2 Go

Celebrating its 30th year as part of the NACS Show general sessions, the NACS Ideas 2 Go video series showcases retail excellence at forward-thinking convenience stores. These videos debut throughout the four days of General Sessions.

The featured retailers for the 2024 NACS Show are:

• Hop Shops/Valor Oil Co. in Florence, Kentucky. The company’s “disco bathrooms” have become a viral media sensation and elevated the experience of a restroom visit.
• ​Nouria Energy in Milford, Massachusetts, and Logan International Airport. “Making you happy makes us happy” is more than messaging—it’s Nouria’s commitment to the customer experience.
• Family Express in Cedar Lake, Indiana, and its training center in Valparaiso, Indiana. Family Express’s “living brand” puts the focus on customer relations, beginning with its employees. The hyper selective hiring process brings the right people to Family Express stores.
• Seasons Corner Market/East Side Enterprises LLC in Cranston, Rhode Island. Seasons evolved from a traditional service station to the corner market that delivers exceptional food and curated products that meet the unique needs of the community.
• Dash In/Wills Group in Indian Head, Maryland. Dash In’s latest store showcases how the retailer has redefined how convenience, customer experience and community engagement can positively impact a community.
• Rusty Lantern Markets LLC in Bethel, Maine. The food-forward focus and new store design emphasizes prepared food, including chef-prepared delicacies like lobster rolls, fresh salads, pizza and local coffee.
• RJ WagsPark in Newtown, Ohio. The ultimate experience for dogs and people, as well as food, entertainment and, of course, a convenience store.

NACS Show Education Sessions

About 50 Education Sessions, created by your peers to cover a range of issues everyone in the industry is facing, are a highlight of the NACS Show. Check out NACSShow.com for an up-to-date list of Education Sessions, which cover everything from AI applications to store safety to the right liquid fuels mix.

Here are Q&As with two of the experts who will be sharing their insights at Education Sessions.

Strategies For Boosting Your Alcohol Category Performance

Join Dee Don Bates, category manager at Yesway, and Danny Brager, beverage alcohol industry fact-based consultant at 3 Tier Beverages, for a masterclass on how industry experts identify trends and create actionable tactics to help businesses navigate the evolving landscape of alcohol.

How would you describe your upcoming education session?

Our session will be set up in a question-and-answer type format as we go over the state of the union in the alcohol category—what’s working, what’s not working. Most importantly, we’ll talk over what has happened in the category over the last year, from Modelo taking the No. 1 spot in the market to how the price of beer has changed consumer behavior.

The biggest lift to listeners, I think, would be the update on the state of the industry and then our discussion on how to capitalize on that moving forward.

What’s something you hope attendees take away from your session?

Managing through the times is probably the biggest takeaway someone can take from the session. We’ll go over what has happened and what the expectations are for the future of the industry, and from that, what retailers and suppliers can do in the alcohol category going forward. Danny is a data analyst, and he’ll dive into the numbers more nationally while mine are much more regional. But there’s a lot of overlap in how regional and national trends overlap.

For example, the Modelo craze began in California. I thought it would be 10 years before I saw that trend in New Mexico, but it almost simultaneously went straight vertical without even planning on it.

Why should people attend your education session in October?

It will be fun and interesting and educational, and built to help businesses increase their profits. But if nothing else, it will be entertaining.

Connect for Success: The Steps to Influence

Convenience stores are built on community and the ability to connect with others—so continue to hone that skill. This workshop is hosted by retired FBI Special Agent and founder of Elite Mindsets Kyle Vowinkel, and he will not only walk attendees through the FBI negotiation tactics, which are built upon connecting with other people, but give attendees a chance to practice what they’re learning.

How would you describe your upcoming education session?

Connecting with others is something that we’re not taught how to do in school, and it’s such a fundamental skill for people to interact productively, positively, in meaningful ways with one another, yet so many people don’t know how to use or even build that skill. Connecting is good for business—connecting is good for customers, connecting will increase your profits. If your employees feel valued and a part of the team, they are going to perform better. Connections between people are vital to take your business to the next level.

What’s something you hope attendees take away from your session?

Truly, we’re not taught how to connect with other people, and in this session, we’re practicing connecting through practical exercises. And I advocate and encourage attendees to take away the idea that they can do similar exercises with their own teams. I call them decision-making exercises, and we did them a lot in the FBI because nobody is good at everything right off the bat. You have to practice.

You should have connection exercises, and other leadership exercises, that help you develop yourself. To help your team develop and improve their performance. You can’t just give a PowerPoint and expect them to get better—they need to practice.