Souvenir shopping has changed. Instead of fridge magnets, a growing wave of travellers is flying home with suitcases full of seasoning blends, instant noodles and chocolate-covered dates. According to a recent piece in Condé Nast Traveller UK, 77% of travellers now identify as 'grocery tourists' — people who treat foreign supermarkets as attractions in their own right. The writer spent six months travelling the world and crowdsourced more than 600 recommendations on Reddit to find the planet's best grocery cultures.
The rise makes sense. With more people staying in apartments and Airbnbs, a supermarket trip is often unavoidable — but the best ones go way beyond stocking the fridge. Add TikTok's 'supermarket safari' hauls and you've got a full-blown travel trend.
California topped the list, thanks to its farm-to-fork ethos and more than 800 regulated farmers' markets where vendors can only sell what they've grown themselves. In Los Angeles, the cult organic chain Erewhon (14 stores across Greater LA, with a new West Hollywood outpost opened in February) turns shopping into a status experience — expect a $21 Strawberry Glaze smoothie, crispy kale chips and a $90 snack bill if you're not careful. Trader Joe's, born in Pasadena in 1967, remains the budget-friendly MVP: Everything But the Bagel Seasoning is the classic souvenir, but the jalapeño sauces, granola butter and chilli salts are worth the suitcase space. Further north in Sacramento, the self-proclaimed farm-to-fork capital of the US, family-run Italian grocer Corti Brothers (founded 1947, now run by 84-year-old Darrell Corti) sells fresh ravioli made every Wednesday and builds a legendary customisable deli sandwich — The Corti Special. Nearby Davis Farmers' Market, running twice weekly since 1976, draws over 25,000 visitors a month and does popsicles in flavours like lime-avocado and Thai tea sweet potato.
Seoul earned equal praise for its convenience stores, which are nothing like the sad corner shops of the UK. Chains like 7-Eleven, GS25 and CU are neighbourhood social hubs with cook-it-yourself stations — the Myeong-dong flagship 7-Eleven stocks more than 50 varieties of ramyeon you can prepare on-site, ideally with melted cheese and an egg. The writer's daily routine: self-assemble an iced Americano topped with Binggrae banana milk, a Korean staple since the 1970s. Snacks to hunt down include salt bread, red-bean-filled danpatbbang and tuna kimchi kimbap. Best souvenirs: ramyeon multipacks, Maxim Gold instant coffee and instant tteokbokki cups.
The full list also covers Paris, Portugal, Tokyo, Athens, Barcelona and Cape Town, but the takeaway is the same everywhere: skip the gift shop, hit the aisles. It's cheap, it's local, and it tells you more about a place than any guided tour.
Via Condé Nast Traveller UK.
