Once upon a time, snacking was a frowned-upon habit—an indulgence in between meals, and which, as Mom constantly warned, was guaranteed to “ruin your dinner.” Fast forward a decade or two and the United States is a snack-happy nation, with 94% of adults snacking several times a day, and many people replacing sit-down meals with satisfying snacks.

Packaged Snacks, the market research company, predicts the salty snacks market will grow to $29 billion by 2022, up from $24 billion in 2017. Top areas for growth over the next five years include more nutritious products that deliver on taste, pleasing flavor combinations and “better-for-you” ingredients, such as proteins, grains, vegetables and superfoods.

Although 62% of consumers polled admit they snack to satisfy a craving, 88% say they’re willing to pay more for foods they believe are healthy, reports Mintel. However, research indicates that while consumers want healthier options, they place more importance on taste and flavor when making a snack purchase. In fact, 51% of consumers believe the taste of a snack is more important than potential health benefits.

The Customers

Amanda Moua of Dallas is a 21-year-old college student, who takes a full load of classes and works part time in retailing. “When I have school and work on the same day, I just eat when I can,” she said, and that often means snacking on chips. “I don’t know what’s not to like about chips. Everyone tells you not to eat them because you’ll gain weight, but I eat them anyway.”

Usually she snacks on barbeque or salt-and-vinegar potato chips. “But I also like dill pickle chips, and the lime-flavored ones are pretty good,” Moua said. “I know it’s not a meal, but even if I had a more predictable schedule, I’d still snack.”

Moua is typical of her age group, a Gen Z student on the millennial cusp—two customer groups that all retailers must target. “Retailers who understand each snack category and customers’ preferences can leverage the products that deliver the volume and profit potential they need,” said Dara Schuster, director of innovation and emerging brands at Kellogg’s. “Look at the huge salty snacks category. It’s a $7.8-billion-dollar business in c-stores alone, growing 31% since 2013, with snacking occasions driven primarily by millennials and Gen Z shoppers.”

Lunchtime and afternoon hours are the best times for salty snacks sales.

Salty snacks enthusiasts are essential convenience-store customers since “62% of salty snack shoppers also purchase a beverage,” Schuster said. “It’s important to merchandise salty snacks alongside the most popular drinks to create an irresistible bundle.”

Despite today’s increased focus on healthy eating, potato chips remain the nation’s top-selling salty snack, with $1.6 billion in c-store sales, an increase of 6% in 2017 over 2016, according to NACS State of the Industry (SOI) data. They are followed by tortilla chips with sales of $1 billion in 2017, up 4.9% year over year.

The remaining salty snacks category made up 4.2% of the convenience channel’s in-store sales in 2017 (6.1% of sales when cigarettes are excluded), according to NACS SOI data, and grew 5.6% to $84,477 per store annually with a gross margin increase of 0.82 points.

In addition to potato and tortilla chips, the salty snacks category includes the subcategory of other salty snacks: nuts/seeds, puffed cheese, mixed offerings, crackers, ready-to-eat popcorn and pretzels.

What Consumers Want

Despite the nation’s ongoing love affair with chips, a growing number of consumers are trying to avoid highly processed foods, reaching instead for products that are considered clean label and “better choices.” They also want additional sources of protein, including plant-based protein.

Nuts are high in protein, and according to Mintel, consumers see them as an inherently healthy food. When Mintel asked consumers when and how they used nuts, 74% reported that they ate them as a snack by themselves and 44% said they ate nuts as part of a larger snack.

The popularity of nuts keeps expanding, according to Todd Hutchcraft, national sales director for convenience, Blue Diamond Growers, the California cooperative specializing in almonds. “We’re receiving feedback from customers whose consumers are trading up to larger pack sizes in this category, so we are presenting larger pack sizes of almonds, such as our 4 oz., 12 oz. and 16 oz.,” he said. “In 2019, we’ll launch some premium products featuring a combination of great American food trends with unique flavors and uncompromising quality.”

One snack trend consumers continue to crave is the pairing of sweet and salty tastes, said Alan Tobin, director of c-store category management for The Hershey Company. “Over the past few years, Hershey has expanded into this space with Reese’s & Hershey Snack Mixes, Reese’s & Hershey chocolate-covered pretzels and Reese’s & Hershey Popped Snack Mix, which incorporate popcorn drizzled in consumers’ favorite candy brands,” Tobin said.

Sell More Snacks

Limited in-store real estate often prohibits convenience retailers from offering as many salty snack SKUs as they and their customers would like. At Rutter’s, the York, Pennsylvania-based chain with 69 locations, management experiments with showcasing snack products in different zones of the store.

“We haven’t necessarily added space in our center store for salty, but we have looked at additional areas to create new sales,” said Joseph Bortner, category supervisor for Rutter’s. “In a number of our stores, we’ve introduced queue lines. Not only is this a great area for capturing last-minute, impulse sales, but it’s an area for featuring seasonal promotions. We’ve tailored our checkout area to the type of purchase being featured by our dedicated beer checkout area, for example, salty snacks.”

Rutter’s also merchandises better-for-you munchies throughout the stores. “Whether it’s clean label, non-GMO, sugar-free, low-calorie or gluten-free, we have snack items that fit our consumer’s needs,” he said.

One protein ingredient that is always in demand is peanut butter. “Peanut butter is a central Pennsylvania favorite,” Bortner said. “It has always been a sales driver for us, whether it’s in candy, protein bars, salty snacks or even flavored milks.”

The Busy Bee Travel Centers, with headquarters in Madison, Florida, began expanding its salty snacks section last year, adding “better-for-you” options in some locations. “Our interstate stores and stores in areas that skew more urban have noticed an increased demand for these items,” said Megan Forcey, director of advertising and e-commerce for Busy Bee. “Expanding the choices over the past year has led to wonderful feedback from our guests.”

Salty snack enthusiasts are essential convenience-store customers since ‘62% of salty snacks shoppers also purchase a beverage.’

One popular salty snack at Busy Bee is the chain’s private-label popcorn, available in six flavors. “It’s merchandised near our registers in a display that solely features our Bee-licious Popcorn,” Forcey said. “This product is so successful in our brick-and-mortar locations that we’ve added it to our website, as well.”

Salty snacks perform well throughout much of the day, but they are in big demand at lunch and after work, two of the busiest times in a convenience store’s day. “Salty and candy combine later in the day,” said Tobin. “As the day moves into night, the most frequent basket partner for candy becomes salty snacks, which appear in almost 20% of baskets in the final three dayparts [after work, mid-evening and late night].”

When it comes to promoting snacks to the public, don’t overlook social media channels, Bortner said. “This is where millennials and older Gen Z consumers spend the most amount of media time.”

No matter where or how they are merchandised, salty snacks will continue to be a mandatory part of most consumers’ daily lives. Busy people have limited time to sit down to a traditional meal, a trend that shows no signs of changing, and they need convenient, portable snacking products that satisfy cravings, provide better-for-you nutrition and support an on-the-go lifestyle.

Of course, “At the end of the day, a better-for-you item has to taste good and provide value to the consumer,” Bortner said.