NACS

Aisha Jefferson (Aisha J.) stopped at an Atlanta QuikTrip on her way to college two decades ago. She applied for a part-time job to help support herself through school and was hired on the spot. Aisha has since held roles at almost every level of the business, from a part-time clerk to a district manager overseeing 18 stores. Today, she's QuikTrip's corporate communications manager. "I speak on behalf of the 31,000 people that work for QuikTrip. I think about that every time I conduct an interview or draft a statement—my audience isn’t just the media. My audience is my employees and their family members. It’s our customers. And I’ve been all those things at some point," she said in the September issue of NACS Magazine in the inaugural "Faces of the Industry" column. Read more on Aisha's journey at https://bit.ly/40XdHG9

#conveniencecares #weareconvenience

Fresh Maine lobster at a convenience store? You bet! We debuted the latest Ideas 2 Go videos at the NACS Show last month, featuring several food-forward convenience retailers in the United States. Rusty Lantern Markets exceeds expectations of c-store food. Elevated, gourmet, high-quality and downright delicious. One of the best parts about filming Ideas 2 Go is being able to sample all the food! Catch up on how the team at Rusty Lantern is serving exceptional food to customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island: https://lnkd.in/edYPWTUE Jeff Lenard | Chrissy Blasinsky | New Frame Creative

Earlier today, our industry's voice was heard during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “Breaking the Visa-Mastercard Duopoly: Bringing Competition and Lower Fees to the Credit Card System.” The hearing examined the lack of competition in the credit card market and its impact on interchange fees, and how the Credit Card Competition Act will help. Here a few of many highlights from the hearing: Committee Chairman Richard Durbin: "The Credit Card Competition Act would break the Visa-Mastercard stranglehold on the market by requiring only the largest banks—those with more than $100 billion in assets—to enable two networks on their cards, and one must be a company other than Visa or Mastercard. In this way, small businesses would finally have a real choice.” U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall: "There are some misconceptions being spread by opponents of this legislation, and I'd like to set the record straight. First misconception that this is a price cap on transaction fees. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, our bill does not impose price caps, there's no price caps instead it requires issuing banks to offer a second processing platform, which is not Visa or Mastercard. This is going to create competition in the market." NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor: "What merchants see every day is that there is an ongoing competition policy problem, a real antitrust problem that is squarely within the jurisdiction of this committee, that affects them every single day and that is Visa and Mastercard have formed the banks that issue credit cards under their names into pricing cartels."

We are hiring for two exciting roles: An instructional Designer on our Education team and a Meetings and Events coordinator to support our Meetings team. Click below to learn more and apply. https://lnkd.in/e9z7zpp5

This Tuesday, November 19, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to investigate Visa and Mastercard’s anticompetitive practices and excessive #swipefees. “We look forward to this hearing because we want as many opportunities as possible to talk about the growing financial hardship excessive swipe fees have caused for American families, small businesses and the economy,” said NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor. The hearing, "Breaking the Visa-Mastercard Duopoly: Bringing Competition and Lower Fees to the Credit Card System," will begin at 10:00 am ET and be livestreamed from the committee's website: https://lnkd.in/gsgYCW93 Swipe fees totaled a record $172 billion in 2023, according to Nilson Report, with Visa and Mastercard’s swipe fees totaling more than $100 billion. Anna Ready Blom | Merchants Payments Coalition | Margaret Hardin Mannion

  A recent Gallup poll suggests that consumers are not confident in the government’s ability to ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply. Ben Chapman, department head of Agricultural and Human Sciences, professor and director of the Safe Plates food safety extension and research program at North Carolina State University, shared in this week's Convenience Matters podcast that this decline is occurring despite efforts to enhance food safety protocols. He believes there is a dichotomy related to the public view around food safety and trust.  “One of the reasons why we're hearing more about food safety issues, whether it's recalls or foodborne outbreaks, is because we're actually drastically better at finding them than we were a decade ago,” he said, adding, “We are in a situation where the world of food safety on the front page because we're identifying things better.” Chapman is a frequent guest on our weekly podcast as well as 2-time speaker at the NACS Food Safety Forum (2025 event is April 8!). Hear more insights on building consumer trust in your foodservice programs by hitting the green play button: https://lnkd.in/eFnZiqM6 Jeff Lenard | Chrissy Blasinsky | Evan Powell | Jeremy Zenlea | Melanie Harris | Brandi Mauro, PMP

Molson Coors Beverage Company is taking a majority ownership stake in ZOA Energy, the better-for-you energy brand co-founded by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. According to Molson Coors, Zoa has repeat purchase rates of 50% and an ability to attract new consumers to the energy category, with 30% of Zoa buyers new to the space. Read more in today's NACS Daily: https://lnkd.in/eNW_873K

The bar has been set. The 2024 NACS Show was record-breaking, with 26,124 total attendees (8.5% higher than 2023) who came to Las Vegas for another amazing industry-specific event. We're capturing NACS Show highlights in this issue of NACS Magazine, and focusing on top issues facing convenience retail: staffing, safe stores, the FDA traceability rule, and the transition to 2D barcodes. Check it out! https://bit.ly/4hzPjjJ Ben Nussbaum | Jeff Lenard | Leah Ash | Lauren Shanesy | Noelle Riddle | Logan Dion | Nancy Pappas | Stephanie Sikorski | Chrissy Blasinsky

NACS is hosting the first industry-specific Loss Prevention and Safety Symposium. The event, designed specifically for the convenience channel and its unique challenges, will take place December 3-4 in Dallas, Texas. “The volume of concerns being expressed by our members regarding protecting their people and managing their assets has risen to unprecedented levels, and so over the course of the last year we’ve convened research and an industry working group to understand the key pain points and where solutions and dialogue are needed. The result is this important new industry event,” said Lori Stillman, vice president of research and education at NACS. “It is a timely event developed for the industry by the industry, with leading convenience industry loss prevention and asset protection leaders sharing insights because it’s a topic that they care deeply about.” Read more about the event in NACS Daily and register your team today: https://bit.ly/3ChfRWM