The beverage trade shows are coming thick and fast this season: after last month’s Natural Products Expo East, this week sees the return of the annual National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) event in Atlanta from Wednesday through Friday. As the name suggests, NACS highlights news and innovations from convenience-heavy categories — energy, coffee, soda and water, amongst others — by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Red Bull, Keurig Dr Pepper and all the major players. Here’s a quick look at what we’ll be watching for: 

🍾 Non-Alc? Not Here

In previous years, the prevailing channel winds in c-stores seemed to have been blowing towards an evolution from the large strategics, in both soft drinks and beer, to incorporate more non-alcoholic better-for-you beverages. But looking across the category now, that's hardly the case, as big-name brands' flirtation with booze has moved on to full-blown relationships: see Arizona Hard Tea, Peace Hard Tea (via the Molson Coors & Coca-Cola pact), The Beast Unleashed (Monster) and the Jack & Coke RTD (via Brown Forman), all released just in the past year. This year's NACS should give a glimpse at the current state of the chessboard and forecast potential gambits to come, particularly as both Coke (Red Tree) and Pepsi (Blue Cloud) develop their respective organizational strategies for their expanding beverage alcohol portfolios. Remember when Red Bull launching mixers felt edgy? Not so much anymore. 

🧗🏼‍♂️ Energy Category Climbers

Though the top-three spots on the podium look broadly invulnerable, there's plenty of action to track just below that rung in the energy drink category, of which NACS is a premier showcase. But trends change fast: the once-innovative pre-workout or 'performance' energy set is now saturated with competition, each seeking to carve out a defensible and differentiated position as they graduate from niche to mainstream. The question is which approach can create that bridge: is it C4, which is leaning into licensing partnerships with WWE and The Wrigley Company to drive volumes via KDP distribution? Anheuser-Busch-backed GHOST, which offers a more lifestyle oriented platform brand that reaches into non-energy occasions? Can PRIME ($71M in 52-weeks ended July 21) continue its leap forward despite the avalanche of bad press? Or can 5-Hour's revamped canned entry finally take off? After yet another year of consolidation from the top brands, independent distributors will likely be on the hunt for attractive prospects.

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Brutally long Starbucks lines at the airport have become an unwelcome staple of the travel experience. But you can’t say the cafe chain isn’t trying. Starbucks is adding new pickup-only digital ordering-exclusive locations, beginning with a new store at the George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas.

📱QSR Magazine reported that the brand has partnered with airport hospitality group OTG to open the pickup-only location in the airport’s Terminal E. It will only accept mobile orders placed through Starbucks’ existing app.

📶 The opening is the first of three digital-only locations being developed in partnership with OTG. Two more stores are expected to open this fall.

☕ The company has previously said that of its 9,300 U.S. locations, only 1% of Starbucks stores are pickup only. Its first such store opened in Manhattan in November 2019.

🚗 Meanwhile, forget the “Third Place” unless it’s the car: 70% of Starbucks locations are now drive-thru restaurants. The company is also planning to open a drive-thru-only location in Fort Myers, Florida in the near future.

Last month spirits editor Ferron Salniker wandered the aisles of Total Wine’s new location in Culver City with CEO Troy Rice, and chatted with him about hot items in non-alc, which spirits are driving sales, and how inflation is changing the shopping cart. 

The CEO mentioned mocktails are gaining momentum, although NA shoppers are overall good customers on the other side of the aisle too. 

Customers are watching their wallets by shifting down in some categories, but the long-term trade up is here to stay, he says.

Tequila has slowed down the least of any category (although some analysts are keeping a close eye on recent downtrading). 

Read the full story on BevNET

As Pickleball establishes itself as the fastest growing sport in America, Monster Energy is taking the trend by Storm. REIGN Storm, Monster’s performance energy subline, has partnered with the Association of Pickleball Players (APP Tour) as its Official Energy Drink, with activations planned for APP Tour events including the Atlanta Open this month.

🤝🏼 Monster marks one of the larger beverage makers to sign a partnership deal with a pro Pickleball league in recent years, but it’s far from the only one. Anheuser-Busch InBev has partnered with Major League Pickleball and numerous independent CPG brands from CLEAN Cause to Day One have forged partnerships in the burgeoning Pickleball community.

🎾 According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, Pickleball participation in the U.S. was up 85.7% year-over-year last year to 8.9 million regular players. Comparatively, between 2020 and 2021 participation grew 14.8%.

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The Diddy vs Diageo saga continues, with the spirits company now countersuing the music mogul.

🧑‍⚖️ Last month, Combs won the first round in the lawsuit against Diageo alleging that his spirits brands received worse treatment because of his race. A judge denied Diageo’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit and its motion to force the case into arbitration. 

😠 Now, Diageo is biting back, and says Combs leveraged allegations of “racial animus” to extort the firm. The spirits giant argues that the allegations “are nothing more than a poorly veiled attempt to weaponize public accusations of racism in order to line Mr. Combs’ pockets even further.”

The hosts discussed TikTok’s announcement that it will make its Shop feature available to all of its 150 million U.S. users and ways that it may benefit CPG brands, and also spoke about the challenge of marketing kids’ brands and why some excel while most fade away. They also riffed on several notable products, including beauty-centric beverages, snackable chocolate and Indian-inspired dips.

Listen to the full episode on BevNET