Retail and food to go’s response to a cautious Christmas

As the countdown to Christmas continues, retailers are preparing for a festive season shaped by cautious consumer spending. Shopper confidence slipped to -3 in September, with 40% of adults saying the autumn budget announcements made them feel more negative about their future finances. These factors are likely to impact spending, with promotional offers and product innovation key to winning, even as consumers tighten their belts.

Across retail and retail food to go, retailers, manufacturers and suppliers will benefit from money-saving behaviours, as, to manage constrained household budgets, more consumers trade down into the home. With living costs likely to rise before Christmas, value is top of mind for many, and retailers are turning to value mechanics, promotional discounts and traditional festive food to go to offset lower budgets.

Despite falling confidence, Christmas remains an important and protected occasion, meaning consumers will aim to save where they can on commodity categories and then reinvest in products to enhance the experience. Retailers are responding with opportunities to ‘save here and indulge there’ across soft drinks, confectionery and food to go.

Early retail activations

Christmas activations are already appearing in retailers, with most dedicating parts of or entire aisles to the occasion. Initial activations began as early as August, and despite competition for space with Back to School, Halloween, and Diwali, these ranges have expanded. Retailers are increasingly using the autumn period to build anticipation, meeting the needs of shoppers planning and spreading spending over a longer period. M&S is specifically targeting shoppers planning for Christmas, using the messaging ‘pop it away for the big day’ on FSDUs and pallets throughout stores.

Confectionery remains a central feature of these early activations, in particular, tubs of confectionery. These chocolate and sweet tubs, a staple of festive hosting and celebrations, are prominently displayed at multiple touchpoints within stores; in high footfall areas, e.g. pallets at the front of stores and on gondola ends, and in relevant aisles, e.g. the Christmas section of seasonal aisles. This again meets the planning ahead for Christmas mission and encourages impulse purchases.

While full-sized festive activations are yet to arrive in many stores, due to other seasonal events taking up the front of stores, signs of Christmas retail theatre are emerging. FSDUs throughout stores feature exciting festive season NPD. These displays create anticipation for Christmas using limited edition festive flavours, with more displays coming out as time goes on. The anticipation of Christmas is driving awareness of the event, and as the displays make their way to the front of stores, suppliers who invested early benefit from brand recognition.

Food to go launches

While consumers are planning a cautious Christmas, with over a fifth saying they will cut back on food to go in the coming months, many are willing to protect the occasion and may be willing to trade up or try new options over the festive period. Retailers and suppliers in food to go are responding with Christmas classics, dependable product innovation and premium hot food to go.

Christmas classics to help reassure spending

Many consumers are planning a cautious Christmas and are likely to spend less out of the home but make more of the occasion when they do celebrate eating or drinking out.

In 2025, consumers sought familiarity in dishes and menu options they could trust. Over half had a traditional Christmas dinner as part of their out of home celebration, with older consumers most likely to choose a traditional Christmas dinner.

This highlights the importance of including traditional flavours, such as turkey, cranberry and stuffing, in festive food to go, and, unsurprisingly, this year’s retail food to go from Sainsbury’s and WH Smith features classic Christmas options.

A clear example comes from Whole Foods Market, which is offering a roast turkey or vegan nut meal in a convenient grab-and-go format. This stands out because it offers a more substantial option for those looking for familiar flavours, but willing to trade up.

Image: Food to go, Whole Foods Market, UK. Source: IGD

Christmas innovation and NPD that’s dependable

Younger consumers were less likely to choose a Christmas dinner in 2025, but over-indexed on every other category, such as festive themed food to go and hot drinks. This reflects Gen Z’s tendency to explore new venues, cuisines and experiences when eating out and shows the greatest opportunity for festive product innovation.

Food to go retailers and manufacturers can tap into this willingness for exploration through relevant international ingredients, such as Currywurst, or festive twists on familiar food to go options, including snacks, drinks and sides.

Hot food to go during the festive period

Retail food to go has traditionally struggled to execute hot food to go consistently, contributing to over half of food to go consumers saying they are dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied with the range of hot food to go on offer. Christmas presents a clear opportunity to address both these challenges.

During the winter months, consumers are more likely to seek hot food to go options throughout the day, creating more consistent and predictable demand, while Christmas dishes lend themselves well to more substantial, premium-feeling hot food formats.

Wrapping up

Against a challenging economic backdrop, many consumers are planning to cut back spending this winter, threatening retail and retail food to go sales and volumes. Yet Christmas remains an important celebration consumers are willing to protect where they can, creating opportunities to capture spend with premium or novel festive ideas.

Whether it is spreading the cost with early positioning or festive food to go classics, or tempting spending with Christmas packaging and food to go product development, the message across retail and retail food to go is clear.

Manufacturers, suppliers and retailers must acknowledge consumers’ desire to save with affordable, entry-level price points, while creating equally accessible premium options to help them mark the celebration in a meaningful way.