Summer road trip season is heating up across America.
Families are packing their cars and hitting the highways for adventures.
And one surprising snack just beat out all the competition for America’s favorite road trip fuel.
Cheez-Its and Pringles dominate the snack game
A new survey from food giant Kellanova just dropped some eye-opening results about what Americans really crave when they’re cruising down the interstate.
The company polled 2,000 adults who either took a road trip in the past year or are planning one this summer.
The results revealed that Cheez-Its and Pringles are the undisputed champions of road trip snacking across every generation.
“With the summer road trip season kicking off, we wanted to find out what people love to munch on the most and discovered all generations crave Cheez-It and Pringles snacks, with Gen Z reaching for the boldest flavors,” said Julia Wilkinson, Senior Director of Insights at Kellanova.
What makes this even more interesting is that nine out of 10 road trippers don’t stop at just one snack during their travels.
Americans are serious about their highway munchies.
Every generation has its own snacking personality
The survey uncovered some wild differences in how age groups approach their road trip food game.
Gen Z drivers are the thrill seekers when it comes to snacks.
They go after bold, crazy flavor combos like sour mixed with spicy, plus bitter and savory all rolled into one.
Since these younger folks usually travel with their crew instead of going solo, they want snacks everyone can share.
Millennials play it different.
Sure, they like tangy flavors, but they end up grabbing the classics – salty, sweet, and cheesy stuff.
Here’s the thing though – most Millennials are hauling kids around, so their main job is keeping the whole family from having meltdowns over snack choices.
The survey found that 40% of Millennial parents deal with kids who basically eat nonstop the entire trip.
Gen X keeps things flexible.
They’ll grab crackers, chips, beef jerky – whatever works.
Their go-to flavors are sweet, salty, and chocolatey, and when they’re not dealing with kids, they prefer just hitting the road with one other person.
Boomers stick to what they know works.
They go for salty, sweet, and chocolate flavors and load up on chips, nuts, seeds, and those snack mix bags.
Most Boomers either travel alone or with their spouse, and here’s what’s interesting – they actually buy their snacks along the way instead of planning ahead like younger generations.
Where you live matters for what you munch
The survey results showed some pretty cool regional patterns that actually match up with real sales data across the country.
Southerners are the most spontaneous snackers.
Instead of loading up before they leave, they prefer stopping and grabbing stuff along the way, and they want salty, sweet, and chocolatey combinations.
Northeasterners are all about the cheese and cream.
They eat twice as many creamy-flavored snacks compared to folks in the Midwest.
But don’t sleep on the Midwest – one out of three people there still rank cheesy flavors in their top three picks.
People out West – both Mountain states and Pacific Coast – take the most laid-back approach.
They usually let someone else handle the snack planning and just eat whatever’s around when they get hungry.
Even though they’re casual about it, they still gravitate toward salty, sweet, and chocolate flavors.
The snack business is massive
This survey shows just how huge the American snacking industry really is.
Kellanova has been in the game for more than 100 years.
Their brand lineup includes Pringles, Cheez-Its, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, RXBAR, Eggo, MorningStar Farms, and Special K.
The company pulled in $13 billion in sales last year.
Those numbers prove Americans don’t mess around when it comes to snacking, whether they’re at home or on the highway.
Road trips aren’t going anywhere
Even with gas prices hitting wallets hard and inflation making everything cost more, Americans haven’t given up on the classic road trip.
The fact that researchers could easily find 2,000 people who had either taken a recent road trip or were planning one shows this tradition is still going strong.
Families are still loading up their cars and exploring the country together.
The only real change is that people are putting more thought into what snacks will fuel their adventures.
From Gen Z experimenting with wild flavor combinations to Boomers making practical stops at convenience stores, every generation has figured out their own way to make the journey taste as good as the destination.
The survey proves that no matter how old you are or where you’re from, the right snack can turn any road trip into something special.
And apparently, that right snack is most likely going to be Cheez-Its or Pringles.