On Monday, March 29, leading food delivery platform DoorDash announced the release of its Bracket Bites report, detailing top snacking trends from the past year, trending snack habits and more.

The company looked at convenience order data from its platform from March 2020 through March 2021 and a national general population survey of 1,000 Americans to put together the report. The following are some key findings:

  • As Americans settled into the six-month mark of working from home, DoorDash saw an increase in snack items ordered. Tortilla chips, fruit snacks, peanut butter cups, donuts, gummy worms and sour cream potato chips were among the most ordered items. Top snacks on the rise include hot chili pepper and lime tortilla chips (1538% increase), fruit snacks (401% increase), peanut butter cups (313% increase) and powdered donuts (109% increase).
  • 56% of Americans report enjoying a “second dinner” by partaking in a late-night snack. 8 pm local time is the most popular time for snacking nationwide, with the exception of those on the east coast who opt to snack an hour later at 9 pm.
  • Emotions play a prominent role in consumer snack habits, with the majority of respondents (30%) saying they grab a snack when happy or excited, followed by 28% who snack when sad or frustrated.
  • 71% of Americans say they have a snack in place of a meal at least once a week. The meal most likely to be substituted is lunch, which 54% of respondents opt to replace with a snack.
  • Americans often partake in a snack when multitasking on the phone (47%), in a work meeting (23%), getting dressed for the day (15%) and even while using the bathroom (16%).

The following cities had the highest number of snack orders in the last year:

  1. Philadelphia, PA
  2. Chicago, IL
  3. Los Angeles, CA
  4. Sacramento, CA
  5. Denver, CO
  6. Dallas, TX
  7. Columbus, OH
  8. Tempe, AZ
  9. Richmond, VA
  10. San Diego, CA

“At DoorDash we are always looking for innovative ways to utilize our data to better serve our customers.” says Jessica Lachs, vice president of analytics at DoorDash. “Over the past year we’ve seen consumer snacking behavior evolve as people settled into new routines at home, discovering new snacking and convenience moments and experiences, big and small. This report demonstrates not only the behavior we’re seeing, but reinforces the breadth of items and experiences uniquely available through DoorDash.”