Sponsored by Bimbo Bakehouse
Mothers have long warned us and now it’s finally happened: snacking has spoiled dinner.
While that may not be great news for the dinner daypart, it’s an exciting opportunity for foodservice operators to sell more snacks.
According to Circana’s National Eating Trends® for the year ended March 2023, Gen Z’s and younger millennials are snacking more often than they are eating meals. Gen Z’s consumption of snacks away-from-home increased 10% over the prior year, while the youngest Americans, or Post-Gen Z’s, increased their snack consumption by 15%, and Gen Xers increased consumption by 7%.
When it comes to purchasing snacks from foodservice outlets, these consumers are ordering everything from donuts and sweet rolls at the morning snack occasion to frozen sweets, salty snacks, and French fries during the afternoon and evening snack occasions. And nearly all (84%) snacks are eaten off-premises—in the car (42%), at home (39%), or at work (11%), Circana CREST® found.
With snack consumption expected to continue to soar in the coming year and beyond, operators have an opportunity to leverage a variety of snack items to increase incremental sales. Read on for snack strategies operators in any area of the industry can harness.
Mix and match snacks
Americans are in love with snacks, especially sweets. According to Datassential’s SNAP! 2023 Keynote Deserts, 95% of consumers say they eat a dessert every week, 63% say they had a dessert within the past day, and 21% say they eat dessert every day. The primary purchase motivator (65%) is “treating myself,” Datassential found.
That sweet tooth is fueling a multi-billion-dollar snack food industry. In fact, the sweet baked goods category, in particular, grew to $12.7 billion in 2023, up 26% from 2019, according to Circana, Total US MULO, 2019 to 2023 Dollar Sales.
But not just any indulgence will do. When it comes to sweet snacks consumers are especially drawn to products from brands they know and trust. Legacy brands like Entenmann’s, which makes the popular Crumb Cake, Pound Cake, and Powdered Mini Donuts, are known for offering classics consumers crave that don’t disappoint. When selecting snacks to stock, offering familiar branded sweets is a tried-and-true strategy for driving sales and incremental visits.
Of course, not all consumers want a sweet snack all the time, so it’s advantageous to offer variety to meet an array of appetites. For example, more of today’s consumers are seeking out more nutritious or “better-for-you” foods, including snacks. According to SPINS MULO + Natural Channel, products labeled gluten free, vegan, organic, or non-GMO, drove double-digit sales growth in the cookie category in the year ended July 16, 2023, compared to the prior year.
The better-for-you trend extends to better-for-the planet—and ultimately better-for-operators. According to Convenience Store News, when snacks are made with ethically sourced ingredients or are beneficial for the environment, 64% of consumers are willing to pay more for them. Fortunately, operators have more better-for-you options to choose from than ever before, including emerging snack lines, such as Emmy’s Organics.
'Snacks-piration'
Even with a solid snack mix, some customers still need a nudge. The burger giants may have perfected suggestive selling with the famous line, “Do you want fries with that?” but any operator can execute on it. This simple but often-overlooked strategy has the power to increase average check. All it takes is training employees to politely push order additions and stocking the point of purchase with irresistible impulse items. Whether your customers are dining in, taking it back to the car, office, or elsewhere, this classic upselling tactic enables you to get the most value from every order.
Another trusted tactic is bundling. In the year ended March 2022, 72% of snacking occasions between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. were beverage-only, leaving untapped opportunities on the table. The simple suggestion or adjacent placement of a well-paired beverage and snack combination puts both in the reach of the consumer when they are making their purchase decision.
Finally, with most snacks being eaten in transit, at home, or in the office, products that are convenient to purchase and that travel well can be especially attractive to today’s consumers. Think of products with features like portion control and resealable packages, or individually wrapped items like Snack Cakes and Mini Donuts.
This opportunity is especially ripe during the morning meal, which has been the fastest-growing daypart due to consumers’ continued need for convenience. Alternatively, micro-markets, on-site mini concepts that allow consumers to self-check everything from fresh fruit and salads to legacy brand sweet treats to healthy mid-day snacks, are another approach to make snacking easy—and profitable
