Countdown shared the snacks New Zealanders love. A spokesperson for the supermarket said that when it comes to snacking, it's all about innovation. However, week after week, New Zealanders more often base their purchasing of products on price rather than flavour.
Staple flavours include Ready Salted, Salt and Vinegar, Sour Cream and Chives for chips, with the spokesperson explaining that while consumers enjoy novel and unique flavours, flavours with a longstanding category presence are the top sellers.
For muesli bars, generally, nut bars, including Chocolate Apricot, Peanut Cashew, and Chocolate Cranberry, take the lead, and Salted Caramel is a sought-after flavour for protein bars.
Ready-salted cashews and pistachios are leaders in the nuts category. However, innovations are strong in the snacks category with the emergence of flavoured nuts, such as Sriracha Cashews and dill Pickle Cashews, and coated nuts have also become increasingly popular, including raspberry, caramel dusted, and dark chocolate around nuts such as almonds and cashews.
There has been a surge of meat-orientated flavours in the chips category, with meat-snacking outside the chips category also becoming a top snacking choice amongst keto consumers.
A spokesperson for Coutndown said that predicting what flavours would be the future for the snacking category was complex, with the supermarket often changing the flavours it stocks every six months.
However, the Countdown spokesperson continued that consumers are more likely to switch brands than flavours, depending on supermarkets' promotions.
"Consumers are happy to shift between the brands to fulfil the above requirements for the family. Some consumers are more focused on value products with more affordable prices every day," said a Countdown spokesperson.
Consumers have begun to embrace snacking as a form of comfort and entertainment, with the supermarket observing that 4 p.m. entertainment is critical to its consumers to be relieved from a day's stress.
"It can either be sweet or savoury depending on the age group and gender."
To read more about snacking, check out the Snacks feature from the September issue of Supermarket News.
