Finally, I am doing my bit for global economic growth.
I don’t drive my car much, avoid devices and apps, and rarely travel. My wife and I have even cut back on dining out and going to the movies.
But one thing I do in daily abundance is consume snacks — pretzels, animal crackers, pistachios, more pretzels, chocolate bark, cinnamon biscuits and Italian taralli sprinkled with black pepper or rosemary. Merely hearing the word “snack” produces a pleasure response associated with gnawing off cellophane wrappers and prying open boxes to get at the peanut butter crackers and coconut cookies inside.
Even my 16-month-old granddaughter knows the score. The moment she sees me, she belts out “cracker!” referring to any number of snackables I ply her with — Corn Chex, crunchy peapods or fistfuls of mini soup croutons, perfect for popping when you’re a toddler on the go.
Constant snacking
Snacks have become one of the hottest categories in the food business, lately helping drive profits at Kellogg K, -0.26%, PepsiCo PEP, +1.05%, Mondelez MDLZ, +1.12%, Campbell Soup CPB, +0.75% and other purveyors of salt, sugar and carbs. Executives tout strong fundamentals in the category, as more Americans grab helpings of sweet or savory foods to get through the day — often instead of a regular meal or while plowing through work or exercise.
Industry surveys note that more than 90% of consumers admit to snacking multiple times daily, which has propelled annual revenues in the sector to nearly $100 billion. (It helps that aside from Pringles, many snack foods come in micron-thin bags that rip open and are impossible to reuse, leaving massive amounts of spillage and waste once the party is over, forcing consumers to buy more rather than store for next time.)
Some companies are shrewdly taking advantage of our cravings with a “less is more” marketing strategy. As CNBC reported of Pepsi’s recent lift from snack sales: “The company has been selling its snacks … in smaller packaging, allowing it to charge more per ounce while appealing to customers who want smaller portions.”
Taste for America
Emerging markets show even greater appetite for grazing and noshing. Nielsen reports surging growth in Asia, Latin America and South Africa, as consumers with more disposable income are able to “spend beyond the bare necessities, marking an incredible opportunity” for snack merchants, better known as sellers of “fast-moving consumer goods.”
My own snacking goes way back. As a kid, I pounced on my mother whenever she returned from the supermarket, rooting through her bags like a dingo, searching for Triscuits and Wheat Thins, snarling if she bought the wrong brand of butter cookies. She had to lock some snacks in a cabinet, lest my sisters and I devour them too quickly — we took turns hunting for the key. My parents took to calling me a “cookie pusher,” which in retrospect, sounds like the juvenile version of an opioid dealer — and, indeed, I was always rifling my friends’ pantries and kitchen drawers to see what I might pilfer.
In high school, I was so devoted to Snyder’s hard sourdough pretzels (with rock salt!) that I scripted and storyboarded a TV ad campaign and sent it off to president of the Hanover, Penn.-based baker, hoping to immortalize my brilliant tag line: “Snyder’s — A Crunch So Loud, You Have to Stop Chewing to Hear.” The company had no budget for advertising, but they did make me a lifetime member of the Snyder’s Pretzel Eating Club.
I always tell people I took up running in college to overcome asthma — in partial truth, the sport allowed me to down more snacks. I would recover from a 14-mile run by eating a whole box of ginger snaps. It’s also when I learned that every meal goes better with pretzels.
‘Functional’ snacks
My wife tries to get me to better organize the various open boxes of snacks I keep in our apartment. Lately, I’ve become hooked on a line of semolina crackers made by an Italian company called Agricola del Sole, sold exclusively through the Eataly stores. They’re pellet-shaped crackers made with olive oil and white wine, and have incredible texture and mouth appeal. The ones with fennel are amazing. But many days, Paul Newman’s pretzel sticks will do just fine.
Connoisseur or not, I may be on the wrong side of the snack divide. Trade research shows that demand for cookies and conventional baked snacks could be waning, while healthy, wellness and “fresh” snacks are driving industry growth — everything from granola bars and trail mix to grapes and sun-dried cranberries. Analysts project a big future for so-called “functional snacks,” packed not only with vitamins and minerals but also cannabis and CBD.
More concerning, I recently learned I have a build-up of plaque in my arteries — my doctor was shocked, given my lean build and mania for exercise. Little did he know he was looking at a lifetime of hydrogenated snack-piling. But no dried seaweed or fruit bars, please, or even Pepperidge Farm Goldfish “infused” with vegetables. To cut back on my fix, I’ll go with the mini packs of Chex Mix or Whole Foods animal crackers, even two at a time. And if any pretzel company needs a brand refresh, my old Snyder’s slogan is ready to go.
Allan Ripp runs a press-relations firm in New York.
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