“The average c-store shopper visits a convenience store more than three times a week,” and “foodservice has overtaken cigarettes as the largest category in the store,” noted industry experts during NielsenIQ (NIQ)’s Consumer 360 conference, which took place last week in Phoenix, Arizona.

During the State of Convenience session, a panel of experts from across the industry discussed how they’re keeping up with changes in the field.

NIQ reported that:

• Retailers continue to widen their offerings of prepared and made-to-order food in stores.
• Many retailers continue to invest in new technology such as self-checkout to streamline operations for customers.
• The fueling industry is theorizing how electric vehicles will change the fuel sales landscape in the future.

Henry Armour, president and CEO of NACS, discussed these three major transitions and trends. “We’ve talked a lot about the energy transition,” he said, referencing the shift from gasoline to electric vehicles. “Cigarettes are in what we call the nicotine transition—historically cigarettes have been a core traffic driver for convenience.”

He continued, “Then there is what I think is the consumer transition—which is about where they shop.”

Another key finding discussed was that consumers are looking for healthier options in c-stores. NIQ tracks what it calls “Better For” product sales, and found that in the past year, healthier products have shown faster growth in the c-store channel compared with total food and beverage sales.

With 160 million Americans visiting a c-store daily, retailers are the place for suppliers to launch new ideas and keep things fresh. “If you want visibility for a new product, you can have more eyeballs on it in the c-store channel than any other,” said Evan Shaver, vice president of category leadership at PepsiCo.