NACS Chairman Brad Call wants NACS Show attendees to remember one thing about the 2014 NACS Show: “You’re a winner, baby, and that’s no lie!”

Repurposing the line from a 1970s-era hit song by the band Hot Chocolate and mixing it with the NACS Show theme, “A Winner Every Year,” Call said that the NACS Show is the convenience retailing industry’s top event for attendees who will win by growing their businesses.

“After all, you’re here at the Show working hard to learn, make connections, and become better operators. You and you and you — every one of you — will be filthy rich winners if you throw your whole self into this Show,” said Call before a standing room-only crowd at the NACS Show Opening General Session.

“Every single year the NACS Show gets better and better: More knowledge is imparted, more suppliers are here, more innovative products, more educational sessions, more resources available to you, and you know what? For the next few days, we’re just going to have a helluva lot of fun,” said Call, vice president of adventure culture at Maverik, in a high-energy presentation.

Call also encouraged attendees to travel and see new formats across the globe. And NACS also provides events for retailers to see these new formats, whether the NACS Global Forum or the NACS Insight Convenience Summit – Europe.
“There are tons of great ideas and innovations around the globe. Take your teams to the Global Forum and to the NACS Insight Summit. You will be so amazed at how much you learn and the innovative ideas you’ll take away from the stores we visit in those countries,” said Call, who has logged 279,000 miles in travel so far this year.

Closer to home, Call urged retailers to redouble their efforts to build and operate stores that the community will be proud of.

“We have to set our standards high and raise the whole convenience industry ocean,” he said, noting that many retailers face zoning challenges related to NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) concerns. “It can be tough to obtain building permits in some locations, but we do need to keep getting better. The ideas that you will find here will make you get better,” he said.
Another big part of overcoming NIMBY is communicating the industry’s voice.

Call praised NACS’s efforts to raise the industry profile, citing the new NACS In Store grassroots initiative, in which members of Congress visit a convenience store to work behind the counter and learn about operations and the industry.
“The idea is pure genius,” said Call. “In our case they came to Maverik, engaged in a quick overview of our adventure guide training — that’s our clerk training — observed the baking in the kitchens, learned basic store ops and then we turned them loose to run the point of sale so they could interact with our customers.”

Call said that the NACS In Store program was a great way to become more acquainted with members of Congress and a terrific way to help educate them on the challenges we face as an industry.

“It’s awesome what we can do when we communicate our voice, and there is so much more we can — and will do. But it’s important to realize that this won’t happen overnight. It’s a journey, and one that NACS is committed to take.”
Anything is possible in an industry that shares as much as the convenience retailing industry, Call noted.

“What we learn from each other — and how we inspire and support each other — is simply amazing to me. And what I love most about NACS is how there is room for everyone,” he said.

“I know I served as your chair this year, but there are a ton of people who work to pull everything together. We have volunteers serving on committees, staff creating new and exciting programs to help you succeed and spouses and other team members that support us all. Maybe most important we have a supplier community that is as committed to this industry as we are.”

The NACS Show is ranked as one of the top 50 largest trade shows in the United States. More than 20,000 attendees from 60-plus countries are at the 2014 NACS Show in Las Vegas, which features three days of general sessions, 65 educational sessions and more than 1,100 exhibiting companies in a record-setting 403,000 net-square-foot expo. For the most up-to-date news and information on the event, go to www.nacsshow.com.