NACS Show Attendance Sets New Chicago Record
The NACS Show set an attendance record for the third year in a row at its 2025 NACS show from Oct. 14 to 17. The show took place in its host city, Chicago. There were approximately 25,136 attendees from 73 countries throughout the course of four days, which featured education, networking and an inside look of trends in the global convenience and fuel retailing industry.
Expo Delivers New Products, Category Excitement
The show is organized around five broad categories: in-store merchandise, technology, facility operations, fuel equipment and services and foodservice. The 440,000-square-foot Expo featured 1,204 exhibitors, which included 184 exhibitors in the New Exhibitor Area and 36 new companies in the Convenience Catalyst section of the Cool New Products Preview Room. Attendees were able to scan QR codes through the NACS Show mobile app for each of the 346 products on display, with the top 10 most-scanned products being:
- Philadelphia to Go (Kraft Heinz)
- Little Joe novelty automotive air fresheners—Put a Smile in the Air & Ride Happy! (Little Joe Drive Int. USA)
- Self-serve bakery display by Palram 4U (Palram 4U)
- CigarBros vertical-standing humidor system (CigarBros USA Inc.)
- Come Ready Foods’ Ready Protein Bar, Clear Protein Water and Protein Puffs (Come Ready Foods LLC)
- Die-cast pull-back cars 225 ct. floor display (K&S Wholesale Inc.)
- Skippy Oatmeal Protein Pie and Dippin’ Dots Birthday Cake Protein Donut (Redefine Foods)
- Newco Infinibrew (Newco Enterprises Inc.)
- International trending chocolates displays (Big Ideas Marketing)
- Just the Fun Part Dubai-Style Chocolate Bars (Just the Fun Part)
The NACS Show consisted of general sessions, which highlighted the overall industry, along with 48 educational sessions that consisted of more than 220 attendees per session. Alongside this, more than 80 volunteers collected an estimated 100,000 pounds of food that was donated to five local charities as part of NACS Foundation’s launch of its Neighborhood Nourish program.
The 2026 NACS Show is set to take place October 6-9 in Las Vegas; sign up to be notified when registration opens. NACS also has more than a dozen other meetings planned throughout the next 12 months.