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Shelf safaris
For some travelers, the most anticipated stop on an itinerary is no longer a landmark or restaurant. It is the local supermarket, pharmacy or beauty store.
Shopping has always been part of travel, but in 2026, everyday retail spaces are becoming destinations in their own right. Skyscanner identifies grocery-store tourism as part of its “Shelf Discovery” trend, with 31% of US travelers planning to explore local supermarkets or grocery stores this year, while 55% say they already do so always or often when abroad. Hilton’s 2026 Trends Report goes further: 77% of travelers say they enjoy visiting grocery stores overseas.
The appeal lies partly in access to everyday life. Unlike museums or attractions designed for visitors, supermarkets reveal how people truly eat, shop and live. Travelers are seeking out regional snacks, condiments, household staples and even reusable supermarket bags as affordable souvenirs and cultural discoveries.
Some retailers are beginning to recognize their new role. Earlier this year, Finnish chain K-Supermarket became the first supermarket brand to officially list selected branches as tourist attractions on Tripadvisor. Individual stores highlight local quirks, from rooftop beehives producing honey to specialist craft-beer selections.
In China, Pang Dong Lai has turned the supermarket visit into something close to a pilgrimage. The regional retailer operates only in Henan, yet travelers routinely make special trips to Xuchang to experience its stores. During the 2026 May Day holiday, queues outside its Angel City branch stretched for hundreds of meters before opening, with some visitors driving more than 400 kilometers to get there.
Earlier in the year, Pang Dong Lai’s Xuchang stores recorded average daily footfall of more than 600,000 during the final three days of the Lunar New Year holiday, while Angel City alone surpassed 180,000 visitors in a single day. The draw goes beyond groceries: shoppers come to experience the retailer’s famously detailed service, food halls and tightly curated products, turning an everyday supermarket into a destination that Chinese social media users have dubbed a “6A scenic spot.”
Beauty retail is following a similar trajectory. In Seoul, South Korea’s Olive Young has become an established stop for international visitors hunting for Korean skincare and sun protection. Foreign shoppers from more than 190 countries accounted for over 25% of the retailer’s offline revenue in 2025, with sun care emerging as one of its strongest categories. In Paris, pharmacies have similarly moved onto tourist itineraries as travelers seek French skincare and sunscreen formulations unavailable or reformulated in their home markets.
There is a practical reason for the obsession. Buying locally gives travelers access to original formulations, broader product ranges and the chance to test textures in person. But the emotional pull goes further. Chriselle Lim, founder and creative director of PHLUR, says that shopping for beauty products while travelling helps her connect with a destination: “Beauty reflects how a place thinks about wellness, aesthetics and self-care.” The products then become attached to the trip itself, part souvenir, part ritual and part memory.
Consumer psychologist Kate Nightingale sees the supermarket trend as part of a broader desire for travel experiences that feel authentic, participatory and accessible. The familiarity of a supermarket actually makes exploration easier, she argues: because travelers already understand how to navigate the space, they are freer to focus on what feels different. Oxford experimental psychologist Charles Spence similarly points to the importance of context: a snack eaten on holiday can feel more special because the environment itself becomes part of the experience.
For brands, this shift suggests that tourism is spilling into spaces never designed as attractions. A pharmacy, supermarket or convenience store can now function as a cultural portal, offering visitors something polished tourist experiences sometimes struggle to provide: the feeling of discovering how a place really lives.
The souvenir, increasingly, may be something locals simply picked up with their weekly shop.
