Despite a global pandemic and looming economic recession, the convenience store industry continues to grow sales at record numbers. But the stakes have never been higher as storeowners face competition from multiple retail channels, regulations that are threatening foundational categories like gasoline and tobacco and a labor crunch that is crippling chains of all sizes.

As competition increases across the board, savvy retailers are learning to take cost out of their operations to run as lean, efficient top quartile businesses. The National Advisory Group (NAG) caters to these businesses. NAG has created an environment where small, mid-sized and family-owned retailers can interact with each other and share ideas for reducing operating costs and increasing sales.

NAG is an association driven by convenience store retailers for retailers. It is an organization committed to building profits and relationships for members, and the annual conference is the driving force behind our success. Convenience store retailers have leaned on NAG for more than 35 years to help them grow sales, cut costs and generate new ideas in the competitive convenience store market. 

NAG has many core strengths, but most notably, it’s our ability to identify winning strategies that help convenience store retailers through our events, education and networking. The organization finds success in many ways; mainly, it’s through its ability to maintain excellent relationships with retailers and supplier partners across the convenience store and petroleum industry. 

After more than three decades, the NAG mission remains the same: to help convenience store retailers interact with one another to discuss new concepts, share information and come away with innovative ideas to grow sales and profits. The foundation of NAG remains its innovative Information Exchanges, which allow retailers the opportunity to connect with other non-competing retailers in an intimate setting that is conducive to learning new ideas and fresh perspectives.

The proof can be found in our just-announced educational lineup for the 2023 NAG Conference in Austin, Texas. The sessions at this year’s conference were developed exclusively with the boards of NAG and the Young Executives Organization (YEO). These sessions are geared toward helping operators understand where the industry is going over the next five years and how to navigate the murky waters that lie ahead. 

These sessions include:

• Developing and Refining Your Corporate Culture
• Understanding Foodservice Customers: Forecasting Future Demand
• Developing Your Long-Term Fuel Strategy
• Private Label Product Branding
• YEO Breakout: Getting Involved: Why Young Executives Need Political Relationships

Plus, the 2023 NAG Conference will feature three exclusive research sessions.

• The Convenience Experience Report: NAG has partnered with Bluedot to identify exactly what Americans think about convenience stores today and what drives their behavior, sentiment and loyalty.
• The Impact of Drive-Through Programs on Convenience Store Foodservice Sales and Consumer Loyalty: Digital has transformed foodservice, reframing customer expectations at convenience stores, restaurants and beyond. How are c-store retailers maintaining their food base and standing out with digital tools and promotions? Based on custom research fielded for NAG by Bounteous, we will examine what the industry can expect over the next five years.
• Connecting Next-Generation Loyalty, Payments and POS Systems with Business Outcomes. A number of next-generation technologies are converging, including loyalty, payments and POS systems. At the intersection, retailers expect a better, differentiated customer experience and returns to the bottom line. These technologies are enabling hyper-personalized customer experiences, seamless payments, mobile ordering, self-checkout, and other benefits. Stuzo will present exclusive insights based on custom NAG research

For YEO, this year’s trach will focus on understanding the importance of political connections. This is a timely conversation, as government regulations continue to chip away at retail driving up costs and hurting the supply chain. Young executives must be able to lobby their local politicians and cultivate new connections to make their voice heard. 

YEO is a special group of next-generation industry leaders who are 40 years of age or younger. Members are entrepreneurs, leading top businesses and actively pursuing a higher level of professionalism in the convenience store and petroleum marketing industry. The industry’s young executives and leaders of tomorrow face unique challenges as they grow their businesses in the competitive convenience store market. YEO was formed specifically to addresses these challenges and identify solutions with others in their age group. 

NAG and YEO present the ideal opportunities for retailers across the board to learn new ideas from the industry’s sharpest minds. What makes our agenda special is that this entire lineup was put together by retailers for retailers across the industry. Visit nagconvenience.com to view the agenda and speaker lineup and nagconvenience.com/join to join NAG as a member.