The 2026 World Cup has turned American shopping trips into a major part of the tournament experience for thousands of international visitors, who are filling suitcases with products that are cheaper, harder to obtain or simply more varied than those available at home.

Andrei Fontana, a 33-year-old visitor from Tapejara, Brazil, arrived in the United States with two large empty suitcases.

After travelling with his father, uncle and cousin through Atlanta, Miami and New York, he was preparing to return with both cases full.

The group attended one World Cup match and spent two hours shopping.

Their purchases included clothing, shoes, iPhones, MacBooks and beauty products for Fontana's partner and sister-in-law.

He said comparable items cost about 30% less in the United States than in Brazil, despite the brands also being available there.

The United States is co-hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico, and retailers have treated the influx of visitors as an opportunity that extends well beyond official merchandise.

Mall operators have reported strong summer foot traffic in host and non-host cities alike, driven by tourists and local residents attending watch parties, fan festivals, restaurants and football-themed events.

Sportswear retailers have benefited, but many visitors are seeking much more ordinary products.

Crest whitening strips, EOS body lotion and melatonin are among the items repeatedly appearing in social-media videos of shopping hauls.

Several American whitening products are restricted elsewhere, melatonin is more difficult to buy in parts of Europe, and some brands are not sold abroad at all.

Abbey Dudley, a 23-year-old visitor from Leeds, England, travelled through San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas during the tournament.

Although her itinerary did not coincide with England matches, she arrived with a shopping list that included toothpaste, moisturiser and PanOxyl facial cleanser.

She documented her purchases and visits to American stores online.

Dudley described Target as one of the largest shops she had ever visited.

For many overseas visitors, the scale of American big-box retail has become an attraction in its own right, rather than merely a place to buy necessities.

Since the tournament began, Target stores in host cities have sold 66% more of the retailer's World Cup merchandise than stores in non-host cities, despite representing only about a quarter of the chain's locations.

Its newest premium Apple AirPods have become one of the most sought-after items among international shoppers.

Richie Karaburun, an associate professor at New York University's hospitality school, said World Cup visitors were seeking experiences beyond conventional tourist sites.

For some, that means walking into Walmart or Target, seeing the scale of the stores and encountering a product range that is unfamiliar at home.

Brands have responded to that curiosity.

McDonald's introduced World Cup meals, while Kraft launched travel-friendly ranch dressing packets designed to fit into hand luggage after identifying strong demand from visitors who wanted to take the distinctly American condiment home.

Netflix is considering a substantial expansion of its on-demand model, weighing always-on genre channels, bundled subscriptions to other streaming services, more live programming and short-form video as it seeks to keep viewers watching more often and for longer.

The central problem is engagement.

The service remains profitable and retains major global franchises, but its share of United States television viewing has weakened as YouTube, Disney, HBO Max, free ad-supported platforms and other services compete for attention.

Some prominent Netflix series have also seen viewership fall sharply from their first seasons to their second, increasing pressure to make the service feel less like a library that requires endless choices and more like a destination that is ready to watch.

One proposal under examination is a set of continuously running channels organized by genre or programming theme.

Such channels would offer scheduled viewing around the clock, allowing members to enter a stream rather than select a specific title.

The approach would mark a conspicuous departure from Netflix's long-standing emphasis on viewer control, personalized recommendation and on-demand choice.

Netflix has already moved beyond a purely on-demand catalogue in France.

Since June, subscribers there have been able to watch live channels and on-demand programming from the French broadcaster TF1 within Netflix, including its rolling news channel.

The arrangement places third-party programming inside Netflix's search, recommendation and viewing features and provides a working test of whether scheduled television can strengthen the service's role in daily viewing habits.

Live programming is also becoming more important to the company's strategy.

Netflix holds exclusive United States rights, including Puerto Rico, for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cups, its first full sports-competition rights agreement.

The company has already used live events to attract large audiences, while sports could give viewers a reason to return at a fixed time rather than watch only when a new series arrives.

A separate expansion begins on August 3, when Netflix is due to add shorter-form programming from several digital publishers in selected English-speaking markets.

The videos, generally three to twenty minutes long, cover subjects including food, travel, fashion, design and entertainment.

The initiative is designed to bring more frequent, lighter viewing into an app built principally for films and television series.

Netflix is also considering whether to sell subscriptions to outside streaming services through its own interface, a model familiar from Apple and Amazon channel stores.

Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, has been discussed as a possible partner, though no agreement has been announced.

The company has also been linked to preliminary interest in Letterboxd, the film-focused social platform, but no acquisition has been confirmed.

The strategic reassessment comes as Netflix develops its advertising business.

Its United States Standard with Ads plan costs $8.99 a month, and a larger mix of live, scheduled and shorter programming could create more opportunities for regular viewing and advertising inventory.

The French TF1 integration, now available to members, is the clearest live test of how far Netflix is prepared to move beyond its original streaming formula.