As occasions fragment, retailers, operators and manufacturers must win each element by making food and drink feel worth choosing.
While routine still dominates, consumers still want occasions that provide social connection, entertainment and a break from the day-to-day. However, financial constraints mean consumers are making changes to these occasions, including splitting the occasion down into its individual elements and spreading it across different environments, making it more important for businesses to understand where their products, channels and propositions can win a role.
Routine dominates the everyday
Our latest report on consumption occasions shows that routine dominates. Everyday habits account for two-thirds of all occasions, with meals, coffee and snacking forming a routine that is easy for consumers to plan and budget for, and to follow. This translates to high levels of in home consumption, with most of these being catered for from retail channels.
Source: IGD Research. Base: 300+ GB respondents answering for every occasion undertaken in 7-day period. Apr’26 (8,000+ occasions)
Retail is currently winning
Reflective of the pattern in the total UK food and drink market, where retail is growing its share of total market value, retail channels are also growing their role in more occasions, including those that take place away from the home.
In occasions that take place on the go, consumers are planning ahead more, taking food and drink with them from home rather than buying something while out. This reflects the increased scrutiny over spending, with consumers making simple swaps from out of home to in home. Retail is strengthening its role in on the go occasions, capturing spend that may previously have gone to cafés, food to go operators, and even the food to go category within convenience stores.
Out of home occasions are being unbundled
Consumers try to protect special occasions and those that provide social connection and entertainment, but even these occasions have been adapted to better suit current lifestyles and financial confidence. Consumers are becoming more selective about which parts of the occasion they pay for and becoming more willing to sacrifice others. They are retaining the part of an occasion they value the most, such as the socialising element, attending an event or getting out of the house, while moving food and drink elsewhere to manage budgets.
As consumers participate more selectively in the different elements of out of home occasions, food and drink are being more willingly sacrificed, with non-food and drink-only occasions on the rise.
Base: 300+ GB respondents answering for every occasion undertaken in 7-day period. Feb’24, Mar’25, Apr’26 (8,000+ occasions in Apr’26)
This willingness to split the occasion means that each component needs to be won individually, leading the spend to be spread across more players. For example, what used to be dinner and drinks at a restaurant to catch up with friends, now may look like dinner at home, drinks out with friends, and a late night snack or delivery order once back home.
Grocery retail is benefiting from this unbundling, with retailers and manufacturers becoming increasingly able to capture parts of out of home occasions, whether this be in the home, or with products coming from the home.
For away from home operators, attendance can no longer be assumed to translate into food and drink spend. Venue purchases need to feel essential, not optional. Distinctive products, themed menus, bundles that link to the activity, and frictionless ordering can all help give consumers a reason to buy on-site rather than arrive having already satisfied the need elsewhere.
Rebuilding occasions around value
Ultimately, consumers have not lost the desire to go out but they are rebuilding occasions in the face of sustained financial pressures and low disposable income. Value and price remain primary choice drivers around where, when and how they choose to socialise, eat and drink both in and out of the home, building more willingness to break down occasions and complete each component separately.
What this means for…
Retailers
Use occasion-led thinking to inspire shoppers. Beyond category-led fixtures, create joined up, cross-category solutions for occasions, such as ‘cinema snacks’, or ‘pre-drink snacks’, to make it easier for shoppers to cater to the food and drink elements of their occasions
Strengthen food to go and portable ranges. Retailers can capture spend before consumers reach leisure, travel or hospitality venues with convenient, easy-to-transport products.
Operators
Make food and drink feel integral to the experience. Consumers need a clear reason to buy on-site, so products must add to the atmosphere, event or social occasion rather than feel like an optional extra.
Design for smaller occasions. Recognise that some consumers may only want drinks or snacks rather than a full meal, and find ways to encourage these smaller purchases to still retain some of the spend.
Manufacturers
Think beyond the channel. Identify where your brands and products can play a role before, during and after an occasion, and make sure they are showing up in all of these locations.
Support retailers with occasion-led solutions. Help retailers build compelling missions around pre-event meals, portable snacks, sharing products and affordable indulgence.
Help operators justify on-site spend. Create exclusive, limited-time or experience-led products that give consumers a reason to buy in venue rather than trade out to retail.
To explore the full breakdown of occasions across each setting, subscribers can read the full report on ShopperVista and Away From Home.
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