At a Glance
- Today’s consumers are still spending, but they’re becoming far more selective, weighing convenience, quality, freshness, and perceived value before making a purchase.
- Convenience has shifted from a competitive advantage to a basic expectation, making durable, leak-resistant, and tamper-protected packaging more important than ever.
- As more shopping journeys begin online, packaging must perform both on-screen and in person by attracting attention and protecting the product through delivery.
- Packaging has become part of the overall consumer experience, helping fresh food businesses build trust, reinforce value, and influence purchasing decisions.
Wait, people are still spending…in this economy?
Yes. Surprisingly, shoppers haven’t stopped buying. According to McKinsey’s State of the Consumer 2025 report, worry and spending used to act like oil and water; they didn’t mix. Not anymore. Now, people are stressed about money and they’re still filling their carts, but become pickier about what earns a spot in there.
Consumers are asking, “Is this actually worth it?” before they buy…which, if you’re running a fresh food business, is a harder question to answer than it used to be.
We get it. That’s a lot to carry…so we did some homework. We at Inline Plastics dug into McKinsey & Company’s report and combined it with more than 55 years of helping fresh food businesses solve packaging headaches. One pattern became obvious: What’s expected changes constantly, but what earns trust (freshness, convenience, and packaging that doesn’t let you down) doesn’t.
Here’s where packaging quietly does its best work. A container that shows off the food, survives the bumpy trip from kitchen to counter, and seals things up tight sends a message before anyone takes a bite: This is worth your money.
That’s what we’re unpacking here (let us have the pun): Why consumers are still spending despite the economy, what “value” really means to them now, and how convenience and online shopping have quietly changed the job your containers have to do. Consider this your shortcut to understanding the shift and exactly where packaging fits into the mix.
What “Value” Actually Means Now
McKinsey has a name for today’s shopper: The “Resourceful Consumer.” Picture someone who buys the store-brand pasta sauce, waits for a coupon, compares three prices on their phone…and then happily splurges on a fancy dessert with all the bells and whistles (gold leaf, anyone?). It’s not about being cheap. It’s about being smart about when to save and when to spend.
Circana found the same pattern in snacking in a new publicly available report, “How Selective Consumption is Shifting the Snackscape.” Shoppers are juggling affordability, convenience, health, and “treat yo-self” moments (shout out to Parks and Rec) all at once, instead of just chasing the lowest price.
For fresh food brands, that’s actually great news. People will pay more for a salad, a sandwich, or a bakery item if it feels worth it. And packaging plays a bigger role in that feeling than you’d think. Freshness you can see, food that doesn’t leak, seals that promise nobody’s messed with your lunch; that’s what turns a “maybe” into a “yes, please, and thank you.”
Convenience Isn’t a Bonus Anymore. It’s the Bare Minimum.
Remember when “convenient” packaging felt like a nice extra? Those days are gone. It’s expected now, full stop.
Grocery delivery, meal kits, and food delivery apps didn’t just survive the pandemic. They’ve become part of how consumers get their food. Delivery’s share of global foodservice spending jumped from 9% in 2019 to 22% in 2025. That’s more than double in just six years. Which means packaging has a much harder job than it used to. It needs to survive a bike courier’s backpack, a hot car, a stack of other orders, and still look Instagram-ready when it lands on someone’s kitchen table. It has to handle shelves, delivery, and questionable driving without falling apart.
And let’s be honest: Nobody has ever left a five-star review because their soup arrived at home spilled all over the car seat.
Your Packaging Now Has to Sell Itself on a Screen
Here’s a shift worth paying attention to: For many consumers, the shopping journey no longer begins in the aisle. It begins online. McKinsey reports that technology is creating a new “path to purchase,” with digital marketplaces and AI increasingly shaping how consumers discover, research, compare, and ultimately choose products before they ever visit a store.
That means your packaging has to do double duty. First, it has to grab attention in a tiny photo on a screen. Then, it has to deliver (pun intended) in real life once it shows up. Clear labels, an attractive look, and easy-to-spot freshness cues aren’t just nice design touches anymore; they’re doing actual selling, whether someone’s scrolling through an app at midnight or standing in front of the grocery case deciding between two salads (or desserts, let’s be honest, here).
So, How Can You Get Consumers to Consume Your Consumables?
Try saying that headline five times in a row. We like to have fun here.
Shoppers’ habits are always shifting. That part isn’t new. What is new is this: Packaging isn’t just there to protect the food anymore. It’s become part of the whole experience, right alongside taste and price.
Shoppers want convenience. They want proof of freshness. They want quality they can trust. And they want their food to show up looking like the photo if they discovered it online for delivery, not appearing as if it went through a wrestling match with a badger on the way over.
The good news? People clearly still want fresh food — prepared meals, grab-and-go lunches, produce, bakery items, deli favorites. That demand isn’t the problem.
The real question is whether your packaging is pulling its weight. Because right now, packaging isn’t just a box or a container. It’s doing PR for your brand before anyone takes a single bite. And that publicity is priceless.
Do you want to learn more about how quality food packaging can showcase your products? Visit our Learning Center today and begin exploring!
