Fighting for the Industry

The convenience industry faces of a host of issues that impact its businesses—burdensome swipe fees, complicated SNAP requirements, illicit nicotine products … and did we mention swipe fees? Few people have a better view of the policy issues affecting the industry than Doug Kantor, Vice President, Government Relations & General Counsel at NACS.

What are the biggest issues the NACS Government Relations team is focused on right now?

The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) has been our top priority for years and remains our top priority. Swipe fees continue to be one of the largest expenses convenience retailers face, and it’s an issue that impacts every retailer regardless of size. Creating more competition in the payments system would save retailers money and create a fairer marketplace.

We’re also spending a significant amount of time on nicotine regulation and enforcement. The illicit market for vapes and pouches continues to grow—it’s now a majority of the market and the regulatory scheme has failed this category. Retailers that follow the rules should not be put at a disadvantage. We need better, clearer regulation and more enforcement.

We’re also heavily involved in issues around emerging age-restricted products including hemp and cannabis, and are advocating for a responsible regulatory framework around those products. We want retailers to have clarity about what they can sell and for consumers to be able to purchase the products they want.

There are also a lot of things our industry sells that are constantly under threat. We focus on a broad range of issues, but they all come back to the same goal of making sure convenience retailers can serve customers effectively while operating on a level playing field.

What recent accomplishments are you most proud of?

Our biggest success of the past couple of years has been on taxes. The passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill last year was fantastic for our industry. We got almost everything we wanted for our industry in there, including the family business pass through deduction, bonus depreciation, estate tax and more.

One area where we’ve seen real progress is allowing retailers to round change from transactions due to the lack of pennies. We’ve worked for a long time to bring attention to that issue and help policymakers understand the practical impacts on businesses.

What excites you most about the year ahead?

Right now, there is genuine opportunity to make progress on some issues that have been priorities for years.

We feel that there is a huge opportunity for momentum on CCCA this year and we are making a big push to get it done. In August, President Trump endorsed the bill again after endorsing it earlier this year, and it gained three new co-sponsors in the Senate. We’re very proud of that development, because it’s a huge step in getting this passed. We also see potential to get things done on illicit nicotine, hemp products, SNAP and fuels issues. The industry touches so many areas, and we are always actively engaged.

The reality is that most issues are long-term ones. I’ve been representing this industry for 25 and a half years now, and most of the issues we were working on 25 years ago are still similar issues that we’re working on today. They’re in a different place now than they were then, and we’ve made a lot of progress and had a lot of wins, but the overall topics don’t change that often. It’s the specifics that change with the times.

AI is a good example. The discussion of using AI for pricing feels new, but we’ve had investigations around retail pricing for decades. The basic question of “What are you doing on pricing?” has always been there. The issues evolve, but many of the underlying questions remain the same.

Why is Government Relations such an important part of what NACS does?

Our members have to run their businesses every day. One thing they can’t control is bad policy from the government. When bad policy happens, it becomes much more difficult to run a business successfully. One of the big reasons we’re there is to make sure policymakers think about our industry when they’re making decisions.

The good thing about this industry is that when markets are generally free, fair and open, our industry does great. Our industry has a lot of businesses, we’re highly competitive and entrepreneurs are constantly adapting and adjusting.

The government relations team plays both offense and defense on their behalf. There are times when something is broken and needs to be fixed. That’s when we may need to play offense to get it changed. On defense, NACS is there reminding policymakers not to create unintended problems for our industry. Policymakers deal with a huge number of issues and there’s no reason they should be thinking about convenience retail unless we’re there talking to them and explaining how a proposal might affect our members.

Doug Kantor will be speaking during the NACS Show General Session on Thursday, October 8, at 10:15 a.m., discussing key government relations issues including credit card swipe fees, fuels and age-restricted products, among other issues.