the lack of an iPhone 5 announcement, visitors to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show in Chicago didn’t emerge with any groundbreaking new product revelations.

There were, however, some significant packaging and format changes, and many recent developments in other channels seemed to be new to the convenience world.

Chief among those changes is the ongoing onslaught of new Coca-Cola packaging. Coke’s core sparkling brands, Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Sprite will all now be available in a 12.5 oz. PET bottle that the company is calling the “hand-held.” With a suggested price of $.89, the new size is intended for immediate consumption and continues the company’s recent string of packaging innovations, including 100-calorie cans, as the brand moves away from a previous generation of 20 oz. packages. The smaller bottle was trumpeted by Coke strategic planner Russell Baker as the “Coca-Cola Hand-Held” — “it’s based on shopper insights on the importance of hand-held devices to younger consumers,” Baker said.

Read the full article here:
NACS New Product Hunt – The Beverage Network