Trends and insights
Explore key trends in Food to Go. Learn why placing biscuits next to hot drinks machines boosts sales and discover additional snacking opportunities through Meal Deals and secondary sittings.
Food To Go is very popular in convenience stores. It makes up 17.9% of sales in Symbols and Independents, and 19.7% in Forecourts. It is the third most common reason people visit convenience stores, after planned top-ups and newsagent purchases. About 13% of convenience shoppers buy meal deals, which often include key snacking items.
In 2025, Food To Go operators and retailers will need to think about how changes in disposable income will affect people's ability and willingness to eat out. They will need to offer good value to make customers accept price increases, or they risk losing them to competitors or home-cooked meals. Retailers and operators will need to balance raising prices with the need to sell more, keeping profits up even as customers have less money to spend.
Retailers can use different touchpoints in store to optimise the sales opportunity. Since 60% of biscuits are consumed with a hot drink, this can be a great way to take advantage of the growth in Food To Go. Having them with a hot drink such as tea or coffee is the biggest driver for buying sweet biscuits so placing these next to the hot drinks machine will present a strong add-on opportunity.
Retailers can also broaden their Meal Deal offerings to include snacks such as biscuits, cakes, and crisps and snacks, in addition to confectionery. This will not only widen the appeal of the offer to different shoppers but also can encourage trial of new lines and a trade up in spend.
Driving snacks in multiple locations will therefore provide shopper interruption. In Impulse, this is very important, not least as in smaller stores, merchandising locations aren’t currently restricted. With the overall shopping time in convenience being a lot lower, the role of secondary siting will drive additional spend through generating impact, theatre and offering shopper value, when otherwise, shoppers may miss some snacking categories completely.
Sources:
IGD Food-to-go trends 2025
Lumina Intelligence, Convenience Tracking Programme 52w/e 10.11.2024
Lumina Intelligence Convenience Tracking Programme, data collected Q3 2024 and Q4 2024
