ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Do consumers say what they do—or do what they say? That’s always the biggest challenge in both creating the right survey questions and finding the right demographics to get the most representative answers possible.

NACS solves this challenge by working with one of the preeminent polling groups in the country—Penn Schoen Berland (PSB)—whether to learn about economic sentiment, consumer food preferences, perceptions of convenience stores or how they shop for fuel.

In the new “Convenience Matters” podcast titled “The Survey Says,” co-hosts Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives, and John Eichberger, executive director of the Fuels Institute, talk to PSB Director Sam Hagedorn about how NACS looks at survey data around consumer sentiment and other broader issues related to overall image of the industry and gas prices.

“With election polling so top-of-mind now, we also learned about how those important tracking polls are created—and what you can look for over the coming weeks,” Lenard said.

The NACS/PSB surveys are used extensively in both the NACS Retail Fuels Report and the reFresh initiative.

The program can be downloaded on iTunes by searching for Convenience Matters. It also is available at nacsonline.com/podcasts. A new “Convenience Matters” podcast will be released every week, focusing on topics related to convenience stores.