After two years of seemingly being everywhere on the NACS Show Expo floor, the pickle has been overtaken by another “P” word, protein. At this year’s NACS Show, it felt like you couldn’t turn around without seeing a booth that featured protein in some way.
There were still a lot of pickle-flavored products on the Expo floor—including new ones like a pickle slushie, a Chamoy pickle gummy and a spicy dill pickle sausage (all were delicious, by the way!)— but the predominant theme was protein, protein, protein.
Only one thing was in more booths— energy, not specifically related to the category, but related to overall excitement. The NACS Show was simply pulsing with energy, whether at receptions and networking events, the packed General Sessions and Education Sessions or on the Expo floor.
Here are a few of the big trends seen and heard by the 25,572 attendees at this year’s NACS Show.
1. Protein Flexes Its Muscles
Fitness and active-life consumers have long embraced protein-packed products, and now so has the rest of the population. One reason is likely the increased use of GLP-1 medications for weight loss. NACS President and CEO Frank Gleeson noted in the October 8 General Session that one in seven Americans has tried a GLP-1. People on the medication often replace meals with snacks and gravitate towards foods high in protein.
“But that isn’t necessarily a huge headwind. After all, we are the channel that is known for snacks. And a quick walk through the Expo floor will show you how many options are there for you to discover,” said Gleeson.
For protein-enhanced snacks, there were donuts, energy bars, popcorn, sour candy, gummies, cookies, tortilla chips, pretzels, wafers and pudding. To wash it down, there was water, kefir, soda or coffee with extra protein. And if protein was still lacking, there were also protein-rich syrups that could be squirted into a beverage for an extra boost.
Even traditional protein-laden products jumped into the protein craze. Many cheese, jerky, peanut butter and egg products touted new packaging that hyped the protein that these products always had.
While meal-replacement was likely a leading reason for the emphasis on protein, renewed interest in wellness was another driver behind the growth.
2. Good for You is Good for Business
In 2019, the nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier America named NACS its Partner of the Year because the industry had embraced offering better-for-you items in c-stores. The momentum stalled a year later when the pandemic hit and disrupted distribution channels, especially for fresh items. Consumers’ interest shifted from healthy options to just protecting their health.
The NACS Show Expo showed that interest in wellness is back in a big way. That interest was on display through, of course, protein-enhanced products, but also other better-for-you offerings. There were organic yerba maté drinks and other caffeine-based beverages positioned around natural energy, chips made with shiitake mushrooms, hydration sodas with electrolytes, functional beverages with adaptogens and plenty of bottled waters that touted their purity.
Education Sessions also touted the renewed interest in wellness, including “Food and Beverage Trends Shaping Convenience in 2027.” The session was led by Suzy Badaracco, president of Culinary Tides Inc., who said that wellness is one of the major factors shaping consumer buying decisions, along with value, exploration and emotional reward.
3. Use Your Noodles
Asian c-stores are renowned for their robust selection of heat-and-eat noodle offerings, from ramen to udon. In the United States, ramen has also grown in popularity—and it was unavoidable at the NACS Show Expo. Traditional ramen purveyors were on the floor, and ramen was trending in chip form.
Kraft Mac and Cheese cheesy ramen noodles are set to launch in early 2027. The noodles are the brand’s first new product in 20 years and garnered considerable attention at the NACS Show—both with the national media and as the top-scanned product in the Cool New Products Preview Room.
4. From Freeze-Dried to Just Plain Frozen
Remember those old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials in which two people bump into each other? One says, “You got chocolate on my peanut butter!” The other says, “You got peanut butter on my chocolate!”
Let’s modify that TV commercial for 2026. It would now air on TikTok, of course, and might go a little something like, “You got your freezer in my candy aisle!” and “You got your candy aisle in my freezer!” because candy and frozen treats seem to be swapping positions.
Baby Ruth and 100 Grand bars, among others, now come in ice cream form, while Lemonheads and Trolli candies are now ice pop flavors. Meanwhile, Popsicle is now a lollipop and Creamsicle is a candy twist.
Remember last year when the big candy trend was freeze-dried? That trend hasn’t gone away, but it’s been joined by frozen candy treats.
5. Nic at NACS
When e-cigarettes were introduced less than a decade ago, it seemed like the two main options for smokers going forward were cigarettes or vaping. But times have changed with the emergence of modern oral nicotine, which grew more than 22% in sales last year according to NielsenIQ. The category has grown so quickly that NACS Managing Director of Research Chris Rapanick noted “NACS has begun to view cigarettes and other tobacco products (OTP) in aggregate as ‘nicotine.’”
On a legislative front, NACS Senior Vice President of Government Relations and General Counsel Doug Kantor said that the U.S. market has been flooded with illicit and unregulated vape products, largely from China, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval pathway for legal nicotine products has been arduous and opaque. To date, the FDA has received more than 26 million premarket tobacco product applications for review. Of those products, the FDA has authorized just over 60 to be on the market.
“We need FDA to provide regulatory clarity of what can and cannot be on the market, clear the backlog of all outstanding premarket tobacco applications and act on new ones quickly and increase enforcement measures so that law-abiding retailers have a level playing field,” said Kantor in a panel discussion during the October 8 General Session.
6. Fueling In-Store Sales
The total number of in-store transactions during the first half of this year fell 4.5% from the same period in 2025, noted Rapanick in “State of the Industry Updates,” an annual Education Session that always attracts a large audience.
Too many customers are “not even considering the fact that they could go inside the store to purchase something,” he noted. But a plethora of fueling dispensers on the Expo floor aimed to change that.
Many dispensers on the market now feature interactive touchscreens and cloud software that allow customers to order food, snacks or car wash services directly at the pump while they fill up. Some dispenser manufacturers also showcased broader advertising opportunities on the pump. With giant screen displays that show not just the price, but in-store offers—plus no more paper pump toppers and added lighting for security—we’ve come a long way from the dispensers that ushered in self-serve fueling in 1964.
But what about maintenance or grime on the touchscreens? Two manufacturers took a different approach to my question and pounded the nozzle against the shatterproof-glass display. “Ballistic glass,” they noted.
7. Discover How You Can Be Discovered
More than any other competing retail channel, convenience stores have moved from conducting transactions to creating experiences, especially around new trends.
Several booths featured products that were hot on TikTok, notably squishies of all shapes and sizes, from the classic stick of butter to a giant chicken wing.
Blind boxes like the mystery dumplings inside boxes designed to look like steamer baskets also were hot. Many of the items had backstories or fortune-telling elements added to further build interest.
The NACS Ideas 2 Go videos that debuted during the October 8 General Session reinforced the trend that “if you can squeeze it, they will come.” Reeder’s of Tulsa, Oklahoma, announces special “drops” of hot new squishy products on social media and finds that some customers race from home in their pajamas to get the prized new offerings.
The Cool New Products Preview Room also featured products that were trending on social media, including ice cream that is molded to look like hyper realistic mangoes and peaches.
A few other interesting novelties were gummy mystery cubes, in which you peel a gelatin cube to reveal a hidden animal-shaped gummy, audio lollipops that play a song in your head while you enjoy them (it really works!) and fidget keychains featuring clicky keyboard keys.
General Session speaker Lindsay Shookus had an even more bold idea for the industry’s future as a relaxing destination when she showed her AI-created rendering of the new Wawa Resort and Spa, which honestly could fit right in on the Las Vegas Strip. To be clear, this was her concept, not anything Wawa has in development … yet.
While squishies and other offerings may not be the answer for everyone, the trend of making your store a destination is not going away. As one exhibitor told me, “You can decide if you want to be the place where people discover new things or you can be left behind.”
Plus So Much More
There is no way that one person can truly cover everything that takes place at the NACS Show—there were 1,090 booths, 56 Education Sessions, three General Sessions and countless receptions and parties. That’s why so many companies send teams to extract all the learnings they can get from the NACS Show.
There were plenty more trends to be seen at the NACS Show. With foodservice becoming an increasingly large part of the convenience industry, ideas for how to build and improve a foodservice offer were a big part of the Education Session schedule and the Expo floor. There were also AI-based solutions for everything from back-office management to loss prevention.
THC-infused products were another big trend, but their future remains in doubt unless Congress takes steps to reclassify them. (At press time, a federal ban on hemp-derived THC was still looming, set to go into effect on December 11.) In the Education Session “The Next Wave in the Cold Vault,” Diana Eberlein, chair of the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives, said regardless of what happens in December, THC beverages will be back. “THC beverage has demand. The consumer wants it. The wholesalers, the retailers want it.”
Ultimately, success in retail comes down to understanding what your customer wants and your special sauce in serving them. As NACS 2025-26 Chairman Annie Gauthier noted in her speech at the October 6 General Session, “We solve problems. We make life easier. But we all have a different approach to how we make life convenient. Prioritize what’s important to you and your business.”
Or, as one exhibitor told me about how c-store snacks and drinks can reframe how drivers think about long trips: “We can take what they dread and make that fun. After all, isn’t that also convenience?”
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