What NACS 2026 taught us about bringing c-store shoppers back
Convenience store transactions are down 4.5% from last year. That number set the tone for NACS 2026, held October 6 to 9 in Las Vegas, and it shaped most of what our team brought home.
Sami Nachawati, Dominika Pietrzyk, and Melissa Stebbins spent four days on the show floor and in the sessions. Their notes leaned more toward marketing than loyalty. That turned out to be useful, because the problems c-store marketers kept describing are exactly the ones a loyalty program should be solving.
Why NACS is worth the trip to Las Vegas
The NACS Show is the yearly trade show run by NACS, the association for convenience and fuel retailing. Chain operators, single-store owners, suppliers, and tech vendors all come to one floor to show what they're betting on for the next year.
We go because fuel and convenience retail is one of the industries Comarch Loyalty builds loyalty programs for, and NACS is the fastest way to hear what operators are worried about right now. Four days of conversations at the booths tells us more than a quarter of reading reports.
What c-store shoppers expect in 2026
The competition has moved inside the store. C-stores now go up against quick-service restaurants for the same lunch break and the same afternoon snack, and shoppers judge them by the same standard. Retailers who invest in quality food give people a reason to park and walk in. The rest are left selling fuel.
The youngest shoppers carry more weight than their age suggests. We found out that Gen Alpha influences 42% of household spending, and Gen Z already has real buying power of its own. Both generations grew up ordering on their phones, so they expect a c-store app to work as smoothly as any food-delivery app they use.
That digital habit is spreading to every age group. Shoppers are more digital each year, which gives retailers more ways to recognize them, reward them, and make a visit feel personal.
The product trends on the floor followed the same mood. Healthier options showed up next to dirty sodas, flavored cold brews, and fun cold drinks of every kind. If a flavor dominated, it was root beer.
How loyalty turns one stop into a habit
When transactions drop 4.5%, every shopper who does walk in is worth more. Winning that shopper back next week matters more than any single sale, and that is the job a loyalty program exists to do.
Our take is that many c-store programs still reward the wrong thing. Points on fuel are easy to copy, and a competitor across the road can match them tomorrow. Rewards tied to the coffee, the fresh sandwich, or the new cold drink build a reason to come inside, and that reason is much harder to copy.
The app is where this comes together. It's how you reach the Gen Z shopper today and the Gen Alpha shopper who's already steering the family car. A program that sends the right offer before someone picks where to stop will earn more repeat visits than one that waits at the register.
NACS 2026 showed us an industry that knows its traffic is shrinking and is already testing ways to bring shoppers back. The retailers we'd bet on are the ones pairing better food with a loyalty app people genuinely want to open. If you're rethinking your own c-store program after the show, we'd love to compare notes.
