Grocery store tourism may still sound like a social media phrase, but retailers and snack suppliers have reason to watch where it goes next.
If travellers start treating supermarkets as part of the destination experience, everyday grocery products could begin carrying more commercial value than their usual role in the fixture suggests.
That shift gives New Zealand an unexpected place in the global snack conversation. According to new analysis from travel insurance specialist InsureandGo, Cadbury Perky Nana ranked as the ninth top-trending foreign supermarket snack in the world, with social searches up 43 percent over the past year.
For a familiar New Zealand confectionery product, that is useful attention. It does not mean Perky Nana suddenly becomes an export strategy on its own, or that every local snack becomes a tourism product. But it does suggest that some legacy products may have more visitor appeal than retailers and suppliers usually credit them with.
The stronger question for grocery is whether online curiosity can be converted into a clearer purchase occasion. A product can be searched, filmed and talked about without automatically lifting rate of sale. The commercial gain comes when that interest is connected to ranging, display, impulse, gifting, destination retail or a better pack format.
InsureandGo analysed 492 grocery-related keywords across TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube to track how search interest in viral supermarket products changed over the past year. The study found that Fumang Propitious Mango Ice Cream from China was the world’s most-wanted supermarket snack, with social searches up 436 percent.
@bynessa_ @Nessa ◡̈ propitious mango ice cream taste test!!! 🥭 lemon taste test next!!! 🍋 #mangoicecream #icecream #tastetest #asianicecream #chinesefood #viralfood
The gap between first and second place is worth noting. Tesco Finest Belgian Chocolate Cookies ranked second globally, with searches up 94 percent. That is still strong growth, but well behind the Chinese mango ice cream, showing the scale of interest that can build around products that feel harder to find, culturally specific or visually suited to social sharing.
@darcieratcliff These were STUNNING 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 #foodreview #tastetest #foodie #cookies #sweettreat
The world’s top ten also included Marinela Pingüinos from Mexico, Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch and Speculoos Cookie Butter from the United States, Tine Brunost from Norway, Kuai Kuai Coconut Corn Puffs from Taiwan, Mister Potato’s Original Salted Egg variant from Malaysia, Perky Nana from New Zealand, and Côte d’Or Mignonnette chocolate bars from Belgium.
@merian_villalobos20 Como comerte un pingüinito correctamente 🐧 #parati #marinela #pingüinos
The wider list sharpens the point. Asian snacks claimed six of the top 15 spots, with products from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore all featuring. Japanese convenience-store staples also appeared, including 7-Eleven Japan’s Tamago Sando and FamilyMart’s Famichiki. European products held a strong position as well, with entries from the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, France and Poland.
@gissyscity
This is where the commercial relevance begins. Travellers are not only looking for restaurants, food halls or premium dining. Some are also using supermarkets and convenience stores as a way to understand local food culture. InsureandGo said “snack haul” content now racks up hundreds of thousands of views online, with travellers heading to local shops abroad to try products they have already seen on social media.
For retailers, that could make parts of the supermarket aisle more relevant to the visitor economy. Products that perform steadily in a local market may have another role if they carry a clear sense of place. Not every item needs to be premium, artisanal or gift-boxed. Some of the strongest performers are everyday products that become interesting because they are unavailable, unusual or culturally recognisable to overseas shoppers.
Perky Nana fits that logic neatly. It is not new, and it does not need to be presented as if it is. Its value is in being distinctive, simple to explain and clearly tied to New Zealand grocery culture. Banana-flavoured confectionery wrapped in chocolate is easy to film, review, compare and share. It is also affordable enough for trial, which matters when the purchase is driven by curiosity rather than planned consumption.
@bmstorestv Perky Nana's back by popular demand! 🎉 Grab yours for just £1.25 - all the way from New Zealand! Indulge in this banana-flavored chew bar, wrapped in luscious Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate. It's a must-try treat! ✨🍫 #perkynana #cadbury #chocolate #milkchocolate #bmstores
That has implications for range reviews and promotional planning. Tourist-heavy stores, CBD supermarkets, airport retail, petrol and convenience outlets, and stores near accommodation clusters may have reason to look again at which local grocery products could be merchandised as destination snacks. A small “New Zealand snacks visitors search for” display could do more work than a broad local products fixture if it gives shoppers a sharper reason to buy.
For Perky Nana, one retail test may sit in airport and travel-adjacent formats. If overseas shoppers are already searching for the product, then Auckland Airport, domestic terminals, petrol sites and travel convenience stores become logical places to test a dedicated New Zealand snack fixture. Not necessarily a large permanent stand, but a sharp, visible display that treats the product as part of the visitor experience rather than just another confectionery line.
Whittaker’s has already shown how well New Zealand chocolate can work in airport retail. Its presence at Auckland Airport reinforces a behaviour many travellers already understand: New Zealand chocolate as something to take overseas, gift, share or bring home. That matters because Perky Nana would not need to compete with Whittaker’s premium gifting position. Its role could be different: lighter, quirkier, more impulse-led and better suited to travellers looking for the snack they have seen online.
That distinction is important. Whittaker’s owns a serious chocolate gift space, while Perky Nana could sit as the fun, nostalgic, lower-price add-on. One carries craft, provenance and gifting confidence. The other carries novelty, memory and conversation. Both can sit within travel retail, but they do different jobs for the shopper.
There is also a product format opportunity sitting inside the trend. A Perky Nana multipack, with smaller individually wrapped bars in a ten-pack format, could make commercial sense. It would shift the product from a single impulse bar into a sharing, gifting and pantry item, while still keeping the novelty and local identity that makes it appealing to visitors.
For travellers, a multipack is easier to take home than loose bars. For domestic shoppers, it creates a reason to buy beyond personal snacking: lunchboxes, office drawers, road trips, gifting, or simply having a recognisable Kiwi treat in the cupboard. If chip brands can use multipacks to create convenience and portion control, there is no reason confectionery with strong local character could not test the same logic.
This is the part that makes the trend more commercially interesting. Social interest does not only suggest where a product could be displayed. It can also show where the current format may be limiting the sale. A single bar works for impulse, but a smaller multi-unit pack could create a higher-value basket addition while making the product easier to share, carry and gift.
The opportunity is not limited to inbound travellers. Domestic shoppers can also respond to external validation. If a product they know well is suddenly being searched for globally, retailers can use that momentum to refresh interest. The product has not changed, but the context around it has. That gives category teams a reason to test limited displays, social-led shelf talkers, travel-themed promotions, nostalgia-driven impulse activity or a new pack architecture.
For suppliers, the lesson is practical. Viral visibility is only useful if the product can convert attention into sales. Brands need to ask whether the pack is clear, the format is portable, the price supports trial, and the story can be understood quickly. Retailers are unlikely to range or promote a product simply because it has social buzz. They will want to know where it sits, how it performs, and whether it can add to rate of sale or basket value.
The Trader Joe’s result adds a second angle. Two of its products appeared in the global top six, with Chili Onion Crunch ranked fourth and Speculoos Cookie Butter ranked sixth. That points to the strength of retailer-owned cult products and suggests supermarkets themselves, not only manufacturers, can become destinations when exclusive ranges develop a clear identity.
@kelseyoppenheim Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch Review 😋👉🏻 #traderjoes #traderjoesgang #traderjoeshaul #traderjoesfind #traderjoesfinds #chilionioncrunch #chili
New Zealand retailers and suppliers may find a useful lesson in that. Private label and exclusive products are often discussed in terms of margin, price and value. Grocery tourism may add another layer. A distinctive exclusive product could also build brand equity for the retailer, particularly if it becomes something visitors actively seek out.
The question now is whether retail treats Perky Nana’s ranking as a quirky mention or a useful prompt. A more commercial response would be to examine which local supermarket products have similar travel appeal, then consider how they are ranged, promoted, packaged and explained to shoppers.
Snacks are well positioned because they are portable, low-cost and emotional. They can act as souvenirs, gifts, social content and impulse purchases at the same time. That makes them commercially efficient when the story is clear, the pack works hard and the route to shelf is well managed.
Perky Nana making the global top ten is a win for the brand, but the wider point is more useful. Social discovery may be starting to influence how some shoppers find, choose and justify what goes into the basket, particularly when travel, novelty and cultural identity are involved.
The next step for retailers and suppliers is deciding whether to treat that attention as a passing online moment, or as an early signal that some everyday products may have more commercial reach than their current shelf position and pack format suggest.
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