Stop me if I’ve told you this one before. When I was 4 years old, I won a Twinkie eating contest. Handily.
Some of the details are lost in the fog of memory, but I remember the judges couldn’t believe it. I was a string bean—all legs and teeth, my dad used to say. I was “Legs Malone.” It was an unexpected victory. I was an underdog to be sure.
When a little girl packs more than twice as many Twinkies in her belly as her age, you notice, I guess.
My mom is a dietitian. I used to love going to my best friend’s house for sleepovers. Her mom let us eat the Raisin Bran with sugar-coated raisins. At the time, I had no idea cereal with marshmallows even existed. Nothing with added sugar, butter or joy was allowed in mom’s kitchen (or our bellies). Well, that’s not entirely true: She teased us with homemade goodies once in a while, just enough to know what we were missing.
So when my local grocery store was recruiting kids for the Twinkie eating contest, and I was there with a school group (my mother was at least 5 miles away as Twinkie the Kid rides), I obviously, overenthusiastically volunteered myself.
I had never tasted a Twinkie before. And I knew this could be my only chance. So I simply did what any sugar-starved child would have done in my same situation: I stuffed as many in my mouth as I could, as quickly as I could.
I cleaned my plate at least six Twinkies earlier than the other kids. Those kids with previous Twinkie experience never stood a chance.
I won a white adult-size large T-shirt with Twinkie the Kid waving his lasso in the air screen-printed on the front. But I was a winner before they handed me my prize. My reward was the white frosting all over my chin and the yellow cake stuck to my fingertips.
C-stores own a special place at the top of the snack food chain.
That day was my snack awakening. I found my soul food. If I’m being honest, the contest was the gateway to a life of allowing myself one more bite. A life of serious snack appreciation and deep respect for the simple pleasures: a bag of Doritos, a Ding Dong, a Corn Nut.
When I was in fifth grade I was the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for Halloween. Sure, I got the idea from the original “Ghostbusters.” But I chose—in the year before I went to middle school, a year before my mom let me wear lip gloss to school, the year I got my first perm, the year I got my ears pierced—to be a giant marshmallow.
Turns out I was ahead of my time.
Riding the Wave
Twenty-six years later, Katy Perry, veritable pop princess, dressed up like a pepperoni pizza to be photographed by paparazzi. And recently at your local mall, I’ve seen kitsch coin purses with phrases such as “Fries Before Guys” and designer T-shirts that read “I’m Only Here for the Snacks.”
This new no-holds-barred snack obsession has a name: snack wave. Coined in 2014 by a hilarious lifestyle blog for girls, TheHairpin. com, the term encapsulates the women and girls who brazenly admit without shame: I love snacks. No Ho Hos about it.
These days, our snack options are endless, our product mixes diverse, our market baskets both better for you and indulgent. We are approaching a state of total snack enlightenment—a time when your customers are embracing all snacks, all the time.
It’s an exciting time to be a card-carrying member of the snack-wave movement, and an even better time to be a snack purveyor. Convenience stores own a special place at the top of the snack food chain. You are uniquely poised to grab this opportunity and feed a nation hungry for snack products that make hearts happy but won’t hurt them either.
As this perfect storm of indulgent acceptance and better-for-you options ushers in a snack renaissance, remember that little girl. Maybe she’s walking in to your store right now, eyes wide, holding her mom’s hand tight. You have an opportunity to create an occasion she will never forget and one her mother is less likely to deny—and create a loyal, snack-loving customer for life.
Abbey Lewis is a lover of snacks and editor in chief of Convenience Store Products. Reach her at alewis@winsightmedia.com.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.