The issue of gasoline prices put NACS retail members in the spotlight throughout the decade and NACS responded by creating the annual "gas price kit" in 2001. The kits were designed to educate the general public about the basics of fuels retailing: who sells gas, how much (or little) they make and the link between oil and gas prices. The kits went a long way towards explaining market conditions when gas prices topped $2 in 2004, $3 in 2005, and $4 in 2008.

As gas prices throughout the decade increased, allegations of gouging actually decreased, as a result of the information disseminated in the gas price kits and in NACS' advocacy on Capitol Hill.

A Focus on the Industry Throughout 2000, NACS reorganized its structure, member committees, programs and initiatives to come into alignment with five focus statements created by Chairman Dean Durling of Quick Chek Food Stores: 1. Defend and grow our core categories 2. Pursue strategies to generate new sales on our real estate 3. Define and promote the characteristics of an employer of choice 4. Seek out and promote the industry’s contributions 5. Help the industry become the efficient channel of trade

These focus statements guided the association and its retail members both operationally and politically through advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill — protecting retailers against threats to tobacco, motor fuels and lottery — to driving efficiencies through the supply chain and repositioning the image of convenience stores with positive industry media messages.

Early on in the decade the industry was acutely aware of the evolution of retail channel blurring among the convenience store, grocery, drug and mass merchandisers formats. To stand out as the consumer retail format of choice, NACS introduced the Cool New Products Showcase at the NACS Show in 2000 to help retailers identify new products and services that meet the needs of consumer demands, as well as help retailers establish a competitive edge as the destination for new and exciting in-store merchandise.

NACS also took a lead role in cultivating a positive industry image with The Dangerfield Project, named after the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield who "couldn't get no respect." In the first year of this project, NACS landed front-page stories on the industry's economic role in major U.S. newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and the L.A. Times. More than 1,000 articles were published, drawing interviews with NACS members, Board members and staff. By decade's end, NACS had conducted thousands of media interviews, and held media training course that helped retailers effectively amplify the industry’s top messages.

After Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, the entire U.S. petroleum infrastructure was significantly disrupted.

During this time retailers struggled to keep supplies flowing and fought off price-gouging allegations. NACS and its members successfully quashed price-gouging legislation that was trying to move through Congress. On September 7, 2005, then-NACS Chairman Bill Douglass, CEO of Douglass Distributing Co., testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on price gouging, saying, Such allegations are personally offensive to me, and in general, they reflect a lack of understanding of the market events that have led to the gasoline and diesel fuel price spikes of the last 10 days.”

Hurricane Katrina did more than disrupt the country’s petroleum infrastructure in 2005. The NACS Show was scheduled to take place in October 2005 in New Orleans. NACS was able to relocate the NACS Show to Las Vegas on 10 weeks’ notice, as opposed to the usual year of planning — and drew more than 22,000 attendees and the second-largest expo to date.

Change was also afoot in 2005, but the transition was seamless. In July 2005, after 24 years of serving as NACS President and CEO, Kerley LeBoeuf retired. Hank Armour, a retailer who had been serving on the NACS Board of Directors since 1994 and was the association’s chairman both 2002 and 2003, succeeded LeBoeuf as the new association leader.

Also in 2005, the U.S. Civil War officially ended. More accurately, a tax to fund it, which was largely paid by the convenience store industry, was permanently repealed. The repeal of the special occupational tax (SOT) on alcohol, which cost stores selling alcohol products $250 per year, saved the industry more than $59 million per year. And it was just one of many NACS victories on Capitol Hill.

However, there were also a few projects NACS initiated that didn't pan out as planned. One being C-StoreMatrix.Com Inc., launched in May 2000, as platform for online industry business-to-business exchanges. Ironically, this project was simply launched too soon before its time — case in point, today's world of social media.

NACS still had plenty of success with technology. In 2000, NACS hired its first information technology officer, John Hervey. Electronic invoicing and reconciliation using eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) soon followed. By decades end, NACS had ventured into social media as well.

And as the convenience and fuel retailing industry continued to grow, so did the need for NACS to communicate information and assessments of top issues and government relations activities on Capitol Hill. On September 4, 2001, NACS launched the NACS Daily e-newsletter, featuring quick and timely news updates, and later in March 2002, NACS members received the inaugural issue of NACS Magazine. Also in 2001, NACS published the first online fuels report to address common consumer questions about the U.S. petroleum market by providing a unique insight into the world of gasoline retailing.

Video also increasingly became a part of how NACS communicates. NACS TV was introduced in 2007 at the NACS Show and in 2008 video took an enormous leap forward as then-NACS Chairman Richard Oneslager visited stores and customers on a 3,000-mile road trip, captured on NACS TV.