Every year, the Cool New Products Preview Room is the place to be. Inside, attendees get an inside look at the latest trends in the industry. With the range of products and trends, there was something there for everyone—whether it was an attendee’s first time in the Cool New Products Preview Room or their 15th.

“We launched the then-named Cool New Products Showcase in 2000, which also happened to be my first NACS Show. It looked a lot different then. And so did I.”
—Jeff Lenard, guest editor

Every year, retail buyers are given early access to the room on the opening day of the NACS Show—a whole day before the Expo floor opens—in addition to early access when the Expo opens to everyone the next day.

The room itself is organized into the same five categories as the Expo floor—facility operations; foodservice; fuel equipment and services; in-store merchandise; and technology.

While visiting the room, NACS Show attendees can scan QR codes for the products on display through the NACS Show mobile app. Once scanned, the app offered guests information about the product and which booth to visit on the Show floor for more information.

There were 300 products on display this year with 12,315 total scans. These were the most-scanned products.

This year, the final top ten Cool New Products are actually the top eleven—there was a tie between two products for the last spot.

1. Little Joe Novelty Automotive Air Fresheners—Ride Happy! Little Joe – Drive Int. USA

2. New products from CigarBros USA Inc.

3. New products from Reichel Foods

4. Café Tango Espresso Frazil

5. CapriSun 12 oz resealable bottle KraftHeinz

6. good2grow Chocolate Snackers good2grow

7. Wonder Sweet Snacks Flower Bakeries LLC

8. Customized drinkware ET Products Inc.

9. Flexeserve Zone Lite—Countertop Flexeserve

10. (Tie)Chamoy and Tajin Candy Big Ideas Marketing and Sargento Shareables Sargento Foods Inc.