Supermarkets have become something of a cultural experience for travellers in 2025. Siobhán Maguire finds out more. This article first appeared in ESM’s January/February 2025 edition.
There’s a new tourist attraction in town, and it requires no admission or booking fee. It has no waiting lists to enter, and you might even be lucky enough to find one that never closes its doors.
That’s right – the humble supermarket is now something of a cultural marvel, thanks to social media and its dedicated followers of food.
You see, social-media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have decided that there’s no better place to visit on your holidays than a local supermarket, rich in taste-driven adventures and local knowledge.
Where else could you stumble across an aisle devoted entirely to rosé wine, or find horse meat or quail as commonly as pork sausage?
Hashtags like #grocerytok, #grocerystoretourism, #supermarkettour and plain old #supermarket amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in 2024 alone, with this year set to be even more popular.
Whether in shared amazement over tubes of mayonnaise in an outlet of French retailer Auchan, a colossal nut refill station in Australia’s Coles, or the architectural beauty of an INTERSPAR in a former bank HQ in Austria, grocery stores are feeding imaginations, and served up across millions of posts.
Naturally, with this growing interest in supermarket-driven content, it was only a matter of time before travel agents climbed aboard, with several already citing the trend of food tourism as big business in 2025.
Booking.com, the online travel operator, noted that 78% of travellers surveyed by the company agreed that trying new foods was part of their travel experience, with grocery shops one of the first stops on their itineraries.
Top destinations for the trend already include Erewhon in Los Angeles, Monoprix in France, and Grand Lucky and Pepito in Indonesia.
The Bucket List Company, a British travel agency specialising in adventure holidays, noted that Carrefour France, Carrefour Spain, and Walmart in the US were the most popular supermarkets in the trend, followed by Target, another US store, and 7-Eleven in Thailand.
“Supermarkets offer an unfiltered glimpse into the local palate,” said Keith Crockford, CEO of the Bucket List Company.
“It’s here you’ll find everyday foods that locals love. Plus, shopping for snacks and groceries is a budget-friendly way to bring home edible souvenirs or try a wide variety of flavours without breaking the bank.
“Supermarket tourism is one of the simplest ways to connect with a destination. It’s an accessible way to step into the rhythm of local life while also uncovering regional specialities you might not find in restaurants.”
Supermarket Peek
Content already trending about some of these destinations includes tourists sharing very expensive food in Erewhon – a $53 wagyu steak or a $40 bottle of hot sauce, anyone? – or what about spicy rosé tteokbokki-flavoured Pringles, available in supermarkets in Seoul,South Korea?
Those sharing their passion for scavenger hunts across the aisles of grocery stores share their giddiness upon entering a foreign supermarket – “It’s so sad that we get so excited over a supermarket,” quips one influencer, after stepping into an E.Leclerc in France, while another bemoans the sheer choice on offer, compared to home.
“We are so deprived in England,” gasps one British woman, as she finds an aisle of nothing but dips and ketchup-flavoured crisps at a Metro in Canada.
Content creators around the supermarket tourism trend aren’t just visitors, however. Cosmo Ebner, who goes by the handle @whereiswanda on TikTok, is a 20-year-old influencer from Amsterdam who has over 5.3 million likes and 92.3K followers at the time of writing this article.
He shares helpful tips about the city, including supermarket prices, how to pay for goods, and even how to exit stores (Albert Heijn requires a scanned till receipt in order to leave).
“I just started to show very everyday things, like supermarkets Albert Heijn and Dirk van den Broek – things that I don’t think twice about, but make a visit for someone from another country or city really interesting,” Ebner says.
“There are lots of tourist shops here, too, that sell things like stroopwafels or cheese, and you can find some of these are really overpriced, but you can get these same items at the supermarkets for less, so those are the kinds of things I post.”
Ebner’s content takes people on a journey around the aisles of supermarkets. On a trip to one Albert Heijn, he points out all the traditional food that tourists might like to try, like confectionery products and pastries, such as roze koeken, flat cakes with pink icing; speculaas, a spiced shortbread biscuit; or Bossche bol, a large chocolate pastry that originates from the Dutch city of ’s-Hertogenbosch.
He highlights seafood staples like rollmops, or raw herring, and a huge variety of cheese.
“Of course, I can’t forget the many varieties of hagelslag that [you] will find in every Dutch supermarket,” Ebner adds, showing shelf upon shelf laden with dozens of different branded varieties of the popular sweet-tasting chocolate granules, which locals sprinkle on buttered bread or rusks.
Showcasing supermarket produce is that simple in its execution, yet Ebner’s popularity also lies in the unassuming and pleasant way that he shares something a little extraordinary in what Dutch natives might consider ordinary – and that seems to be the secret of supermarket tourism’s success.
“Grocery store tourism has exploded post-Covid,” says Melissa Moore, an Irish retail consultant and host of the Retail Tea Break podcast.
“The lure of exotic flavours from your favourite brands, new foods, and a world of new experiences is so exciting. Unlike your average grocery shop, grocery tourism is a planned activity, just like seeing a UNESCO World Heritage Site or historic palace.
“Navigating a store that you don’t know can be thrilling because when you’re in holiday mode, you can take your time. This isn’t a quick dash to the store to grab dinner on the way home from work – this is a considered shopping experience. The grocery store tourist will systematically walk up and down each aisle, exploring assortments supported by strong POS. To capitalise on the opportunities, retailers should ensure the customer experience is honest and authentic. Remember: these shoppers are looking for something they don’t find at home.”
A Secret Museum
Someone who knows all about the allure of grocery store tourism is travel writer Richard Morgan, who penned a piece for New York magazine back in 2018, with the title ‘The Best Way to Tour a City Is Through Its Grocery Store.’
In the article, Morgan writes about how ‘the secret museum in every city is a grocery store’ and tells tourists, ‘Go to the hip restaurants, fancy hotels, and cool museums. See the sights. Then also check out Aisle 3. Life may be a movable feast, but, without fail, any trip will be richly rewarded if you stop and smell the groceries.’
Today, Morgan is still as passionate about the idea of browsing the aisles while abroad.
“I think one of the things people like about grocery stores is the authenticity and the intimacy,” he says. “Also, you can be intimated by a restaurant – it doesn’t have to be a Michelin one, but you can be intimidated by ordering for yourself at, say, a Spanish tapas place in Barcelona, but you’re never going to be intimidated by a grocery store because they are not designed to do that.
They are very welcoming, and sometimes there’s free samples, and there’s a kids’ section, or a wine section, or a cereal section.
“One of the things that always perplexes me is that, in America, there is a brand called Frosted Flakes, but in Britain and in Ireland, it’s Frosties. There’s no need to change the names, but brands do, and these are the things that we see in supermarket aisles.
I also think you never want to feel like you’re ‘tourism cattle’ or assembly line tourism – like you’re herded through the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum.
“Supermarkets are different because you would never be able to over-tourism it because it’s a real place that’s required for daily life, so you’re really engaging with young couples who are arguing about who is making dinner that night, or kids throwing tantrums about getting a candy bar. You’re seeing all of this humanity to it, and less of a factory side to this sort of tourism.”
Morgan has his favourites, too, like a boutique grocery store called Mantequerìas Bravo in Madrid, a speciality store similar to the now-closed Dean & DeLuca in New York.
“You kind of just go in, and it’s really great – you can buy chorizo crisps for one or two euro, or a very expensive bottle of wine,” he shares.
“It’s family run, and they are all over this tourism aspect because that grocery store will do wine tastings or even picnics for you, where they will bring it to you in the park,” he adds, “so there are these concierge moments happening there, but, also, it’s not all about [the] old world.”
Brand Power
Social-media trends around supermarkets and groceries have gone viral in recent years, long before the idea of travellers sharing new food discoveries or quirky displays of home brands with completely different packaging to what they are used to – think leading brands like Oreos, Starbucks, and 1.5-litre versions of customers’ favourite wines.
Brands have been quick to act upon food-related trends, too. In 2020, supermodel Gigi Hadid’s spicy vodka pasta recipe went viral acrossTikTok and Instagram, generating a plethora of recreations across social media.
Brands Pernod Ricard and Heinz seized on the fad as a marketing opportunity, and in 2023, limited-edition jars of Heinz x Absolut Tomato Vodka Pasta Sauce were born.
Being in the spotlight isn’t the easiest, either, as one supermarket chain found out. Last year’s pineapple trend proved a major headache for Mercadona stores in Spain, when young singles there would place pineapples upside down in their shopping trolleys, to signal their interest in others.
Known as ‘flirting time’, which took place between 7pm and 8pm, the fad soon took its toll on staff, who were left with bruised fruit and many clean-ups on many aisles. The solution? Clear away the pineapples before the romance hour struck.
Luckily, supermarket tourism is a lot less complicated, with retailers and chains having to do little of the work themselves, allowing people take selfies, or ‘shelfies’, with a floor-to-ceiling display of snacks in the background, or TikTok videos soaking in the layouts and offerings of entire stores.
Showcase Revolution
Nevertheless, experts say that retailers should pay heed to what is being posted and prepare their stores on the pretence that they could be the next big social media hit.
“Retail basics play a massive part in driving a meaningful shopping experience. Clean, tidy, well-stocked shelves will help make their shopping trip seamless and hassle-free,” advises The Retail Tea Break’s Moore.
“The journey can be enhanced beforehand with exciting socialmedia content, to hint at what to expect.
“In-store, well-placed retail media showing the tourist what they could create back at home with their packets and jars will also encourage purchases. Now, more than ever, retailers should amplify the social-media message and utilise the content from grocery tourists. Their insights, stories and purchases will speak to different audiences. Retailers should embrace this and start to drive a new kind of customer loyalty.”
What lies ahead for content creators like Ebner if the FMCG sector starts to fully embrace the grocery tourism trend?
“I’ve already had two foreign brands that are now selling in Albert Heijn reach out and ask me to do a video showcasing their products,” he says.
“The idea is that these are new to the Netherlands and I can let people know about them, but I can’t say much about this just yet, but content like this is really popular.
“I’ve already been to Denmark, and I went to a 7-Eleven there because we don’t have it in most European countries, except for Scandinavia. I also filmed a video about that experience. I can spend hours looking around these places because it is an interesting thing to do and other people like what you’re posting, and I always just try to be myself with everything I share.
“My plans now are to go to Switzerland and Sweden and share what I find in supermarkets there. I see this kind of trend being popular for a long time.”
