A convenience store gamifying on-the-go meals

Beijing – Chinese convenience store Gogo is making the daily commute more entertaining by turning grab-and-go food shopping into a physical gaming experience.

To inject a feeling of joy into the mundaneness of meals to go, the store has partnered with branding agency Meat Studio to develop food packaging based on video games. As a result, portable items like beigels, salad bowls and juices are packaged with pictures that imitate the in-game icons that restore a player's health.

Located throughout the Beijing subway, Gogo convenience stores specialise in on-the-go foods and products. According to Ronald Tau, creative director and founder of Meat Studio, ‘convenience stores are like ‘item shops’ in games, or checkpoints between levels: they let you recalibrate yourself momentarily and keep you going’.

Gogo's food packaging is part of a larger trend of companies bringing internet aesthetics into the physical world. Just this month, the Crosby Studios Meta café also explored the style of Mirrored Realms.