Now more than ever before, the U.S. snacking economy is seeing a trend toward smaller and more frequent eating. This is a good thing for the world of healthy snacking and vending machine sales — these trends are driving healthy snack sales growth in a positive direction. Let’s take a closer look at the ins and outs of smaller and more frequent snacking and how it affects sales.

 

Eating On-the-Go

Consumers are busier than ever before. With the growth of technology and the freelance economy, work isn’t always limited to the 9-to-5 office job and professionals likely work long hours. Even when that’s not the case, the other responsibilities of life take up that space — children’s activities, grocery shopping, PTO meetings, etc. Because of this, eating on-the-go is more popular than ever; consumers are looking for small, portable and easy-to-eat items, and they’re even willing to pay more for goods that fit those parameters. What better place to find a small meal or a quick snack that works for the on-the-go consumer than inside a vending machine?

Eating More Often

In part because of the busy, on-the-go lives of consumers, and in part because of the desire of consumers to avoid carb-heavy, fattening meals whenever they can, the trend toward eating smaller meals more often is another factor driving healthy snack sales growth. A person may choose to eat five or six small meals a day, rather than two or three large ones — healthy snacks are a great fit for those consumers, and vending machines facilitate that choice perfectly.

Responsible Snacking

In addition to smaller, portable meals that are eaten more often, consumers are also looking for snacks that are good for the planet. This means choosing items that are organic, locally grown and sustainably sourced, have less processed components, have fewer genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other additives, etc. The desire for responsible eating makes one thing very clear: healthy snack sales growth has nowhere to go but up!

 

How Will You Adapt?

Healthy, portable and responsible snacks that suit the lifestyle of the busy modern consumer — the trend isn’t going away any time soon. It’s time to capitalize on that growth potential.