Although the c-store demographic hasn't changed much in recent years, manufacturers have altered their product mix to c-stores. Instead of just offering beef jerky, cigarettes and single-serve sizes of their grocery store lines, marketers are now developing products specifically for the c-store audience, and are using that audience to test the viability of new product ideas. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, there are currently more than 36 million people aged 21- to 30-years-old in the U.S. These young adults are a prime audience for food and beverage marketers.

On everyone's tongues at NACS was the term "alcoh-pops," the moniker for the new generation of drinks made with vodka and/or malt liquor, combined with fruit juices and/or lemonades, energy drinks and isotonic beverages, targeted at the newly legal and ready-to-spend Generation X.