The question is whether the snack category—salty, savory, sweet, meat snacks and others—can remain bulletproof to deliver continued positive numbers, as some segments wrestle with out-of-stocks and the specter of crossing “accepted” price thresholds.

Most segments registered bullish performances in dollar sales even as units slid, often a result of premium product innovation filling the pipeline and cost-conscious consumers cutting back after a year and a half of indulging in family-size packages.

All retail channels are growing snack dollar sales, and all but drug chains are outpacing pre-pandemic sales, according to 52-week data ending in April from IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm. For convenience retailing, during spring 2020 the channel enjoyed an 11% dollar bump for packaged snacks for the year-earlier period; two years later dollar growth has increased to 21% as folks continue to snack—and view convenience to meet their fulfillment, IRI found. Retailers now have a chance to keep the momentum going.

“The key is to drive foot traffic into stores. Brick-and-mortar foot traffic is not operating at 2019 levels, so give consumers a reason to buy [in-store],” says Jennifer Martin, category manager for convenience at Minong, Wis.-based Link Snacks Inc., manufacturer of the Jack Link’s meat-snack portfolio.

According to Cincinnati-based data consultant 84.51°, which collaborated with grocery giant Kroger on a shopper survey about buying intentions, 52% have noticed price increases for snacks and candy. While that’s significant, they’re far more aware of rising prices for dairy (82%), produce (78%) and deli/meat/fish (77%) categories. Succinctly put, “snacks are saying ‘so what’ to a weakening economy,” the survey report concluded, as overall category sales have risen 9% year-to-date in 2022, says 84.51°).

One clear winner across dollars and volume are larger package sizes, seen as economical. This trend continues even as a growing number of consumers are returning to buying single-size formats as they become more mobile following pandemic quarantines. So, what’s driving c-store packaged snacks sales now?