Happy hour? That’s a classic “snacking occasion.” Post-workout? An opportunity for a refueling bite. The afternoon cup of coffee that also includes a discounted pastry? That’s another spun-up “snacking occasion.”
Back in the day, three square meals were the standard. Now, many people nibble and snack all day (and night). And shrewd executives are seeking ways to get people to keep spending on all of it, partly by concocting ever more snacking occasions.
The term has been rising in popularity among executives as companies scramble to continue making money through the day even as some consumers shift to smaller portions, or choose snacks in lieu of meals. “Hostess Donettes brand continues to outperform the broader sweet baked goods category,” the chief executive of J.M. Smucker said in August, “reinforcing the brand’s relevance within the A.M. snacking occasion.” Also that month, the El Pollo Loco chief executive said that afternoon and late-night offerings like coffee drinks, chicken tenders and quesadillas were “part of a broader snacking occasion that brings guests into our restaurant outside of traditional mealtime.”
Alex Susskind, a professor at Cornell focused on food and beverage management, said that executives using this term are referring to “a revenue opportunity that exists outside of normal structures.”
The industry term has been around for decades, Mr. Susskind said. But lately, as inflation ruffles consumers’ outlook and the rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs alters eating patterns, use of the term has picked up. “Snacking occasion” has appeared on 51 conference call transcripts so far in 2026, and was mentioned on 48 transcripts last year, according to Alphasense, a research firm. In the third quarter of this year, the term was used on 20 calls, up from four mentions in the same period a decade earlier.
The ultimate goal of a snacking occasion, Mr. Susskind said, is to “layer in another type of consumption.” Restaurants, of course, want customers to spend lavishly on full meals. But as habits change, brands have tacitly acknowledged that at least some slice of the customer base has a dwindling appetite because of GLP-1 drugs — and they are adjusting offerings accordingly.
“They might actually be subbing out a fuller meal occasion, but you’d rather have them come and snack than have them not come at all,” Mr. Susskind said. Chipotle, for one, now offers meat cups for $4. McDonald’s rolled out more high-protein sides over the summer, and its chief executive said in August that “certainly one of the things that we see with people who go on GLP-1s is they eat more protein,” and “you certainly see portion size go down.”
In recent decades, there has been a “continual graduation of consumers eating differently across the day,” said Sally Lyons Wyatt, who leads food and beverage and snacking research at Circana. Millennials, in particular, began snacking all day long. “GLP-1 is not necessarily cratering the industry,” she added. “It is redefining what consumers are eating.”
The same cup of yogurt can play the role of a full meal or a simple tide-over, depending on the diner’s mind-set. “The product hasn’t necessarily changed, but the role of the product has changed,” Ms. Wyatt added.
“Companies that understand the need behind ‘occasion’ are better positioned than those that think people will stop snacking,” Ms. Wyatt said. After all, she mused, “snacks just aren’t what they used to be.”
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