The NACS Show floor opened Tuesday in Las Vegas. It features more than 430,000 square feet of expo space, featuring more than 1,200 exhibitors across facility operations, foodservice, fuel equipment and services, in-store merchandise and technology.
Here is a slice of what CSP Daily News editors have seen so far that stood out in technology, candy foodservice and more.
New in Tech
In the convenience-store industry, artificial intelligence (AI) is centered around making data digestible, efficient and easier to understand, according to many technology companies on the trade show floor. For example, NCR Voyix, a software development company based in Atlanta, is launching a solution that not only collects transaction data but allows retailers to interact with an AI-powered chatbot to ask specific questions about it. The AI refers to the data and provides simple answers, making it faster than having to manually sift through the numbers, the company said.
Additionally in AI, while self-checkout has been around for a while, AI is becoming a more prominent aspect of it. Several tech companies are offering a self-checkout solution where a customer can set all the items in their basket under a camera to be recognized simultaneously. The system uses AI to capture what the items are and determine the price, and the customer can pay without having to scan everything individually, or even at all. Diebold Nixdorf, a North Canton, Ohio-based tech provider, and NCR Voyix are each launching varieties of this technology.
EV Charging Innovation
If connecting loyalty and personalization to digital signage at the pump increases in-store conversions, why not incorporate the same strategy into electric vehicle (EV) charging stations? That’s the goal for many retailers, EV infrastructure companies and loyalty providers alike, but it’s still in the works for much of the industry, according to education session speakers and company representatives on the show floor.
Gilbarco Veeder Root, a fuel infrastructure company based in Greensboro, North Carolina, is launching a Konect-branded touchscreen EV charger that can connect to loyalty programs.
NCR Voyix also offers a marketplace application within Dover Fueling Solutions (DFS)-owned touch-screen fuel pump that connects the pump to in-store sales. Fuel customers can add fresh food or packaged goods to their virtual basket and then go inside to retrieve it and pay. Retailers could easily integrate their loyalty program so that it also showcases customers deals and points, NCR Voyix said.
In addition, DFS provides turn-key self-ordering and loyalty solutions as part of its Anthem Experience offering at the pump. DX Market powered by Grubbrr allows customers to shop while they fuel, sending them a text when their order is ready to pick up within the store, driving foot traffic and incremental indoor sales for retailers. DX Rewards allows for integration of a retailer’s rewards program directly on the dispenser allowing auto enrollment as well as reward redemption. Currently available on the Anthem UX fuel dispenser, DFS plans to enable both products on Wayne PWR, the company's new EV charger, and ultimately all dispensing lines.
A Focus on Seasonal Candies
Seasonal nonchocolate candy is growing. According to c-store data from Chicago-based Ferrara, seasonal sugar candy is up 41% compared to a year ago. At the NACS Show, Ferrara showed how it was marketing its candies—including Nerds Rope, Nerds Gummy Clusters and Bach’s candies—for each season. For Halloween, for example, it has a Spooky version of Nerds Rope and Nerds Gummy Clusters, along with Brach’s Candy Corn. It also has Holiday, Valentine’s Day and Easter varieties of each of these brands.
The Rise of Better-For-You Products
Consumers who care about what they put in their body and where the products come from are becoming big drivers in trends in convenience, Brad Helmer, executive vice president of business and corporate brand development for specialty and fresh product distributor KeHE Distributors, Naperville, Illinois, told CSP. Citing SPINS data, Helmer said the growth in sales of natural products is up 5% while convention is down 1%. Helmer said convenience retailers are now more open to bring a better-for-you assortment into their stores.
“These trends are not going to stop and more of the enlightened convenience operators are starting to see that,” Helmer said. “This is a trend that is going to keep penetrating the convenience channel.”
Echoing this insight on the tradeshow floor was Ryan Burkhart, foodservice sales manager at Veggies Made Great, a Piscataway, New Jersey-based private company that specializes in the food and beverages area.
The younger generation is living a healthier lifestyle and are seeking out better-for-you products, said Burkhart.
“C-stores are serving better food, and we believe better-for-you is going to continue to grow as well,” said Burkhart.
Internet of Things Helping Maintain Equipment
Technology that alerts a convenience-store retailer about necessary equipment maintenance, low or empty coffee levels, and more is growing in popularity.
This technology was on display at the NACS Show, and Robb Stanek, national accounts director for Powerhouse Dynamics, Boston, said connectivity is proving to be a big time and resource saver for customers when connected to coffee makers, ovens, refrigerators and more.
“They have remote visibility to see what’s going on,” he said.
Powerhouse Dynamics, owned by Elgin, Illinois-based Middleby, is an internet of things (IotT) solutions provider for eliminating waste in the operations of multi-unit convenience store and foodservice facilities.
IoT technology will alert a retailer that something’s wrong with a piece of equipment, and even code it as an emergency or not.
“Anything you can do to self-serve is a cost saving and an efficiency for the customer,” Stanek said. “Anything with a circuit board can be tapped into to get to the data.”
For example, a retailer can or be alerted to a clogged filter in a refrigerator—or see what types of coffee are selling and view volume levels, he said.
“This gives them the ability to say, ‘We’re serving a lot of Colombian coffee, maybe we should take one of those bins and make it two times Colombian,” Stanek said.
With ovens, “We can see what the product mix is and break it down by daypart and tell you if you need both ovens on or if you can shut one off later in the day because you don’t have the demand.”
Bean-to-Batch a Growing Coffee Trend
Using technology to make brewing coffee more efficient—and more fresh—is a growing trend for c-store java.
Jason Buckner, director of field services at Birmingham, Alabama-based Royal Cup Coffee, said bean-to-batch technology—a concept beyond bean to cup—allows retailers to automatically schedule how full they want a coffee urn to be based on the time of day to maximize freshness and minimize waste.
“The retailer can schedule the times to brew and the volume,” Buckner said, noting that a retailer might schedule a machine to brew less or more coffee depending on daypart traffic.
There’s even the ability to schedule a machine to automatically empty its contents for cleaning—for machines that don’t have a self-cleaning feature, he said.
With some of these machines, “The only need for humans is to refill the beans in the hopper,” Buckner said, noting that one Springfield, Illinois-based Bunn machine on display housed three urns, enabling a retailer to brew three types of coffee.
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