CHICAGO, August 14, 2025 - With sales of fanny packs and digital cameras soaring again, is there any mystery as to why nostalgia is driving so many current food-away-from-home promotions?
Examples abound. KFC announced this week that it’ll return Potato Wedges, a discontinued product it first offered in the 1960s, to its menu next Monday.
The bid for consumer attention follows McDonald’s recent re-introduction of Snack Wraps, an option that first appeared under the Golden Arches in 2006. Ads for the $2.99 item attribute its return to constant customer requests for a reprise.
It’s the same explanation Taco Bell has given for bringing back its Mexican pizza.
Pure nostalgia is the foundation for an earlier McDonald’s promotions, the launch of Happy Meals aimed at adults who grew up with the child-focused version.
Cracker Barrel is aiming for a double-dose of nostalgia with its return this summer of Campfire Meals, a line that plays off recollections of long-ago camping excursions and enjoyment in more recent years of what’s become a seasonal hit for the chain.
The list goes on and on.
Some view the embrace of nostalgia as a way to offer lower ticket items without conditioning regular customers to shop for price. Yet the warm and fuzzy feeling of ordering old favorites is proving a stronger draw than bargain prices, says David Portalatin, SVP and Industry Advisor on Food and Foodservice for the research company Circana.
“Nostalgia focused promotions had a 75% success rate, compared to purely price or value-based promotions that only had a 57% success rate", Portalatin said during a session of Go2MarketEdge, a virtual event that builds on last week’s in-person meeting of the same name.
“We are seeing very broadly across the consumer landscape [that] anything nostalgia-driven is creating a lot of demand,” Portalatin noted.
For instance, the sneaker manufacturer New Balance “has found tremendous success by re-releasing some vintage styles,” he continued. The footwear company is enjoying a 24% upswing in sales from the effort, according to Portalatin.
Toy sales, meanwhile, are being lifted appreciably by a younger generation’s embrace of Pokemon cards, the collectibles and game pieces that were once the craze of their older siblings, if not their parents. Portalatin said the newest promotions have raised awareness of Pokemon by 10%.
Sales of digital cameras are resuming after dropping in a freefall as camera-equipped smartphones became a staple, and the often-mocked fanny pack is shifting back into vogue, with sales up 8%, said Portalatin. “Who would have ever thought fanny packs would be making a comeback?” he commented.
The title of Portalatin’s presentation was, “Spending Shifts: What Customers Value in Uncertain Times.” He led his comments with a note of encouragement: “We’re seeing some acceleration in traffic to restaurants. We’re seeing over the last four weeks that transactions are flat. Flat is the new up.”
“The consumer is still being cautious, still being selective, still being very careful about what they spend,” Portalatin observed. Yet Circana is increasingly seeing “a consumer that’s beginning to feel a little bit better about things.”
He spoke during Day One of the virtual Go2MarketEdge conference. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 12, and continuing for the next two weeks, “attendees” can tune in via laptop or phone for two one-hour sessions every Tuesday and Thursday. The broadcasts are available as recordings immediately afterward, providing participants with the leeway to view as their schedules permit.
The content is different from what was delivered to attendees during last week’s in-person event. Both presentation forms had the same goal: Providing food-away-from-home marketing and sales executives with the knowhow to respond more quickly to changes in the business.
A key part of that endeavor was providing a first-hand look at how AI and other technologies are transforming the trade.
More information on the virtual Go2MarketEdge conference is available here.
Both versions of Go2MarketEdge have been presented by IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.