Convenience Matters

Consumer preferences are constantly changing. Hear insights from a snacker panel on what your customers want now and where snacking is heading. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guests: Rachel Krupa, Founder, The Goods Mart and Krupa Consulting In 2018, Rachel founded the highly curated better-for-you, socially conscious convenience store concept, The Goods Mart, based in New York City. She also is the founder of Krupa Consulting, a public relations and brand-building agency. Dana Kim, Founder and CEO, Highlight Dana founded Highlight, the first and still only end-to-end agile product testing platform, that enables the efficient collection of scaled product performance data. It is a top SAAS platform in the product testing space.

The U.S. Treasury will officially stop making pennies and phase out the one-cent coin from circulation. Here are four things retailers need to know, recapped from a February 2025 podcast. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard

The NACS Foundation’s annual 24/7 Day (July 24) makes it easy for retailers and suppliers to celebrate the first responders who protect our communities—and it's free. Hear some of the success stories from previous years and how your company can join the celebration. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Kevin O’Connell, Executive Director, NACS Foundation Kevin leads the NACS Foundation and collaborates with industry stakeholders to develop signature programs that align with NACS members’ philanthropic priorities, which overall focus on serving first responders, fighting hunger, supporting healthy kids and keeping communities clean.

Hear how retailers can grow sales through effective marketing, merchandising and planning that makes their stores the ultimate destination for road trippers. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Steve Holtz, President, Holtz Media Consulting Steve is a veteran c-store journalist with 25 years in the industry. He is currently president of Holtz Media Consulting.

At least two broad trends are affecting food consumption right now: The growing use of GLP-1 drugs that is leading one segment of customers to seek out products with specific attributes, while economic concerns are leading another segment to increasingly seek out value. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Andreas Düss, CEO, 6 Seeds Consulting Andreas is a leading voice at the intersection of AI, consumer behavior and the food and agriculture industries. His insights help shape the future of food, guiding businesses through the challenges of an evolving global market.

Although there have been many changes in the electric vehicle market, both in sales and in perceptions, EVs will continue to play a central role in the future of transportation. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Quincy Lee, Founder & CEO, Electric Era Quincy founded Electric Era in 2020. Prior to that, he led the Gateway Ground Station Antenna program for SpaceX Starlink and was one of the earliest team members.

What are the key convenience retail metrics and themes that were delivered at the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit? Chris Rapanick breaks it down for us this week on Convenience Matters. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Chris Rapanick, Managing Director, NACS Research Chris oversees the day-to-day operations of NACS Research, manages and directs departmental financial and operational performance, and drives strategic development of NACS long-term research capabilities and offerings for the convenience industry.

AI can sound grandiose... it can sound complicated... and it can sound scary. But it's really just another tool to help you communicate. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Steve Lerch, President, Story Arc Consulting Steve was a featured speaker at the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit. He is an award-winning international public speaker and consultant, and a highly respected voice in the world of digital strategy, marketing, consumer behavior, innovation, and leadership.  

Let's look at the big takeaways and data from the recently concluded NACS State of the Industry Summit. We cover big-picture industry metrics, consumer trends and insights how you can best navigate today's economic uncertainty. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard

Convenience can mean extended hours of operation, one-stop shopping, speedy service, online ordering and delivery. When we asked consumers how they defined convenience, one word stood out most. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Adam Rosenblatt, Founding Partner, Bold Decision Adam is one of the nation’s leading political consultants sought after for his ability to help clients achieve victory through effective research-based strategies and messaging. He designs and executes cutting-edge quantitative, qualitative, and data analytics programs for campaigns as well as non-political clients like NACS.

Which resources are necessary for HR leaders in convenience retail to build great teams? The recent NACS Human Resource Forum focused on this topic along with other industry-specific themes. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Julie Jackowski, HR Forum Moderator and Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, Casey’s (retired) Julie has more than 30-plus years of experience in the legal profession and the c-store industry, including 31 years at Casey’s, where she oversaw the company’s legal, compliance, regulatory and risk areas. She has moderated three NACS HR Forums and served as the 2019-20 NACS Chairman.

EVs are one of many solutions to reducing emissions; we look at some other ways to also examine emission reduction. In addition, we share insights on how EV drivers charge at stores -- and what it means to your business. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: John Eichberger, Executive Director, Transportation Energy Institute John has more than 20 years of experience in the fuels industry, including more than a decade leading the Transportation Energy Institute (formerly known as the Fuels Institute). Prior to that, he served for 15 years as vice president of government relations at NACS, with a focus on fuels- and energy-related issues.

Highlights from the 2025 NACS Convenience Summit Asia were tours of convenience stores in Tokyo. Hear more for learnings and insights about what we saw, and experienced in this incredibly efficient c-store market. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Jeff McQuilkin, Director, Exhibit Sales & Services, NACS Jeff has over 25 years of exposition sales, marketing, operations and project management experience, the last eight with NACS.

The early weeks of the Trump administration have been marked by a flurry of activity. Find out which actions could impact convenience retail and the potential opportunities for the industry on key issues. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Doug Kantor, General Counsel, NACS Doug has served as legal counsel for NACS for more than 20 years, originally as a partner with the law firms Collier Shannon Scott PLLC and Steptoe & Johnson LLP. He has been NACS in-house counsel since 2021. Doug also served as special counsel and deputy chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

How do you get people to listen to your message long enough for it to be effective? Storytelling can help cut through the clutter in a crowded marketplace, and tools like AI can make your messages even more impactful. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Steve Lerch, President, Story Arc Consulting Steve is a keynote speaker at the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit. He is an award-winning international public speaker and consultant and a highly respected voice in the world of digital strategy, marketing, consumer behavior, innovation and leadership. Prior to founding Story Arc Consulting, Steve spent nine years at Google crafting his unique perspective on the topics of innovation, strategy and digital marketing.

President Trump and Elon Musk have both advocated for the elimination of the penny. We share insights from customers on whether they agree and how it would affect transactions in convenience stores. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard, NACS Media & Strategic Communications

The gas price sign used to be the most important means of communications to attract drivers to c-stores. Today, digital communications have unleashed many other more effective opportunities to tell customers about your offer by appealing to their known behaviors. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Fred Dimesa, Head of Product for Marketing Solutions, Arity Fred is head of product for marketing solutions at Arity. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing strategies and launching new businesses in the technology space.

We look at some of the preliminary numbers related to industry performance—and what it means to you. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Chris Rapanick, Managing Director, NACS Research Chris oversees the day-to-day operations of NACS Research, manages and directs departmental financial and operational performance, and drives strategic development of NACS long-term research capabilities and offerings for the convenience industry.

Beer accounts for about 7% of all dollars spent inside convenience stores. What are some of the trends that could affect sales in 2025? Hosted by: Jeff Lenard and Chrissy Blasinsky About our Guest: Benj Steinman, President, Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS Benj is the president of Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS Inc., the leading trade publisher for the United States brewing industry since 1970. He is publisher and editor of the flagship newsletter as well as several other online and print media publications.

New policies from the Trump Administration could affect the broader fuels market in 2025 and beyond. Find out what could impact retailers. Hosted by: Jeff Lenard About our Guest: Denton Cinquegrana, Chief Oil Analyst, OPIS Denton has been with OPIS since 2001 and serves as the chief oil analyst, responsible for the day-to-day operations of OPIS’ news and analysis division. In his role, he also provides big picture views to OPIS subscribers on a variety of topics from supply and demand trends to anticipating price moves in the futures, spot and retail markets in North America.