钛媒体APP

wrote a column ·

A 2.3-yuan Coca-Cola and the 'folded daily life' of 750 million people in county-level cities

(This article is authored by New Knowledge 101, and published by Titanium Media with authorization)

By New Knowledge 101, Author: Cheng Mo

In the spring of 2026, Fenghuang Street in a certain county in northern Anhui Province, an ordinary street just 800 meters long, underwent its most intense commercial transformation in nearly a decade over the past 18 months.

The storefront at the street corner, which was originally a Suguo supermarket that had been in business for twenty years, closed down at the end of 2024 and was replaced by a 'Haoxianglai' bulk snack store. Walking another two hundred meters ahead, the old Wang couple's hardware and sundries shop was revamped last year into a 'Zhaoyiming Snacks' outlet with a bright yellow facade that stays lit until eleven at night. The vacant storefront in the middle of the street, which had been empty for more than half a year, was taken over by 'Mixue Ice City' six months ago, and every afternoon during school dismissal, the line of junior high students outside can block half the sidewalk.

At the end of the street, the spot that once displayed a 'KFC Coming Soon' banner finally opened during the National Day holiday in 2025 — this is the first KFC in the county. On the opening day, the queue outside the store made two turns, and someone posted on social media: 'Our county finally has a KFC,' accompanied by a photo of a family bucket, receiving over three hundred likes.

The stories unfolding on these four streets are simultaneously taking place across more than 2,800 county-level administrative regions in China, from small border towns in the northeast to mountainous counties in the southwest, from top-100 counties along the eastern coast to villages in the west that have just shaken off poverty and are moving toward revitalization.

These seemingly unrelated scenes point to the same fact:The daily lives of 750 million county residents are being reshaped by a retail revolution.The vanguard of this revolution includes bulk snack stores, milk tea chains, and fast-food giants — they share a common secret: the 'Ten-Thousand Store' strategy.

Turning from the main street of the county into the community alleys, within a ten-minute walk, you are highly likely to encounter at least one bulk snack store, one Mixue Ice City or Guming, and one chain supermarket. This 'one-meter living circle' has rapidly taken shape over the past two to three years.

The data is even more telling: By the end of 2025, Mingming Henmang's outlets have reached 21,948, covering 75% of the counties nationwide. A total of 7,813 new franchise stores were opened throughout the year, with a closure rate of only 1.2%. This means that on average, a Mingming Henmang store opens every 1.1 hours somewhere in China. Meanwhile, another giant, Wanchen Group, has reached 18,314 stores, with a net increase of 4,118 stores in the same period. Together, the two giants have over 40,000 stores, occupying more than 75% of the bulk snack market.

The deeper significance of this scale does not lie in the numbers themselves but in how it has recoded the rhythm of daily life in counties. Previously, county residents had only two options for buying snacks: either queuing up at the supermarket or enduring limited choices and higher prices at mom-and-pop shops. The emergence of bulk snack stores has turned snack consumption from 'a special trip' into 'a casual thing.' A 500ml bottle of Coca-Cola sells for 2.3 yuan, nearly 40% cheaper than large supermarkets and half the price of convenience stores — this price difference does not require minimum order quantities, waiting for big promotions, or checking membership days; it’s available every day.

Bulk snack stores are just one chapter of the story. Mixue Ice City has long become a landmark in county-level commerce. In just three years from 2020 to 2023, Mixue Ice City opened nearly 25,000 stores, single-handedly shattering the ceiling for chain restaurants.

By the end of 2025, the total number of Mixue Ice City’s global stores will approach 60,000, with 57.6% located in third-tier cities or lower. Mixue Ice City's massive expansion also taught the entire industry a lesson:The下沉market outside the fifth ring road is much larger than imagined.

The second lesson Mixue Ice City imparted to China's catering industry is this:If you want to open 10,000 stores in a year, it's impossible to rely on direct operation.Its expansion logic: self-built supply chain, extreme cost compression, and rapid replication through franchise models. Before Mixue Ice City appeared, young people in county towns either had no choice for a 'decent' milk tea or faced high prices. Mixue used 3-yuan lemon water, 4-yuan fresh cold lemonade, and 6-yuan milk tea to create this market out of nothing.

Perhaps inspired by Mixue and having recognized economic realities, Yum! Brands changed its strategy in recent years:KFC goes下沉, Pizza Hut cuts prices.In 2025, KFC rapidly opened 1,349 new stores, covering 270 new towns. To adapt to the county-level market, KFC even introduced a 'twin-store' model: KFC and Pizza Hut share kitchens, staff, and equipment, with one team handling two jobs. About 10 such stores have already opened in counties across Hubei, Anhui, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu provinces, all concentrated after September 2025.

The combined force of chain brands in下沉markets is changing the fundamentals of the county commercial ecosystem. Bulk snack shops provide 'affordable, fast, good, and economical' daily snacks, Mixue Ice City offers low-threshold social beverages, and KFC delivers standardized fast food experiences — each occupying a high-frequency scenario, together weaving a time grid that covers the daily lives of county residents.

If we turn back the clock to 2016, how did people in counties shop? What was their consumer psychology like?

Back then, if you wanted to buy some snacks in a county, you had no more than three options: go to the largest local supermarket, but you'd have to wait at least ten minutes in line to check out; visit a mom-and-pop store by the street where shelves were dusty, offering at most 200 SKUs, and a bottle of Coca-Cola cost fifty cents more than in the city with an indifferent attitude towards sales; or, wait until the weekend to drive to the city's RT-Mart to stock up for half a month.

Imagine the Wang family from a county in Anhui Province. A family of four: Mr. Wang works at an auto repair shop in the county, his wife, Ms. Li, is a cashier at a community grocery store, their son is in middle school, their daughter is in elementary school, and they live with two elderly relatives. In 2022, their daily shopping still bore traces of the old county habits — by six in the morning, the vegetable market would be crowded with vendors selling fresh produce and live fish, priced affordably but quality depended on your discernment; after work, they might stop by a small store to buy cigarettes and a few bags of unpackaged snacks, dust-covered shelves holding no more than 200 SKUs. In the evening, they occasionally visited the old mall,where clothes costing several hundred yuan carried obvious brand markups, yet always felt 'not quite worth it.'

That period was also known as the era of 'brand worship' in county-level consumption.

Xiao Chen, who attended high school in a county in Jiangxi Province, recalled, 'Back then, wearing a Yishion T-shirt with its logo on the chest silently declared, ‘My family’s financial situation is decent.’ For drinks, it had to be Master Kong's iced tea, for snacks, Oreo — not because these were the best tasting, but because they were constantly advertised on TV, and those were the only brands people recognized.'

This was both a problem of consumer choice and infrastructure.The information gap and channel barriers together formed an invisible cage.

Before bulk snack stores emerged, the underlying logic of county retail was 'sell whatever is available.' Local distributors sourced goods from the city, the city from provincial agents, and provincial agents from manufacturers — each level added a markup of 15% to 20%, so by the time a bag of chips that cost 2 yuan at the factory reached the hands of county consumers, it had become 4.5 yuan. More crucially, while prices increased at every level, products were also filtered: items with insufficient profit margins simply had no incentive to reach county shelves. As a result, people in the counties could only buy 'generic goods' year-round — Master Kong, Uni-President, Lay's, Oreo, always the same few brands.

E-commerce was once regarded as the savior of county-level consumption.

E-commerce broke the first barrier:Information gap. For the first time, people in county towns realized that the world of snacks was so vast and that the same items were much cheaper online. Price comparison awareness began to awaken.

But e-commerce did not break the second barrier:Immediacy. A pack of snacks priced at 9.9 yuan incurs a shipping fee of 3 yuan and requires waiting for two to three days. The 'impulse' behind impulse buying had long since faded. People in county towns still needed offline channels to meet the demand of 'wanting it today,' while offline remained expensive and limited.

As a result, an unusual 'buying expensive items online, buying cheap items offline' split emerged: big-ticket or branded goods were purchased online (because they're cheaper), while daily small items were bought locally (because it's convenient). However, this split is unstable because the offline prices for 'daily small things' remain high, and consumers always feel like they are being overcharged.

This was the real picture of county-level consumption before bulk snack stores appeared: fewer choices, higher prices, and inconvenience. All three problems coexisted.

The emergence of bulk snack stores solved the three issues of 'price,' 'choice,' and 'distance': through supply chain restructuring, they brought about structural advantages; a 120-square-meter bulk snack store typically carries more than 2,000 SKUs, which is more than double the number found in the snack section of a supermarket of the same size; Mingming Henmang's store network already covers 75% of the counties nationwide, with Wanchen Group closely following. In many counties, there is bound to be a bulk snack store within a 15-minute walk. This means that snack consumption has shifted from being a 'special trip' to something 'convenient' – making a detour on the way home from work, picking up children after school along the way, or casually dropping by during a stroll.

These three strategies have left traditional retail formats almost powerless to respond. By 2024, the GMV share of the national supermarket channel for leisure food dropped from 49.2% in 2019 to 45.8%, grocery stores declined from 24.2% to 22.7%, while specialty stores (mainly bulk snack stores) surged from 7.6% to 11.2%. In just five years, market share increased by nearly half.

This is not a zero-sum game of存量博弈, but a systematic replacement of inefficiency by efficiency.

The deeper logic behind this is the change in the mindset of county-level consumers, which is much greater than imagined.

Around 2015, the core characteristic of county-level consumption was "brand worship." At that time, people in small towns would go to 'Yishion' or 'Metersbonwe' to buy clothes, drink 'Master Kong' or 'Uni-President' beverages, and eat 'Oreo' or 'Lay's' snacks. A brand was a guarantee of quality, a symbol of status, and social currency. A Yishion T-shirt with a logo on the chest silently proclaimed, "I'm doing well in this small town."

Around 2020, the popularity of e-commerce began to weaken this brand worship. People in small towns discovered that they could find more products on Taobao than in local physical stores, and at cheaper prices. However, e-commerce had its limitations—you couldn't touch or try the products, and sometimes you couldn't wait for delivery. As a result, a split emerged: buying expensive items online and cheaper ones offline. Big-ticket or branded items were purchased online, while everyday necessities were bought locally.

After 2023, the rise of bulk retail stores completely changed the underlying logic of county-level consumption. People in small towns realized that they could buy things even cheaper near their homes—not because of sales or promotions, but as everyday low prices. Moreover, there was more variety than in supermarkets, fresher goods than in small shops, and a better shopping environment than in wet markets. Three words: more, faster, and cheaper.

Behind this change lies a profound shift in the consumption mindset of county-level consumers: from "recognizing brands" to "recognizing prices," from "seeking face" to "valuing substance," and from "passive acceptance" to "active comparison."

A 2025 county consumer research report released by Black Ant Capital provided some intriguing data: the average annual household income in counties is about 96,000 yuan, with high homeownership rates and low debt levels, showing far greater consumption resilience than first-tier cities. They are not simply "downgrading" or "copying urban patterns," but have found a unique form of "folded consumption" that balances rational calculation with emotional warmth.

What is "folded consumption"? It means that the same consumer follows entirely different decision-making logics across various product categories and scenarios. For essential items like rice, flour, and cooking oil, they pursue cost-effectiveness and save wherever possible; for investments like education and healthcare, they are willing to spend and pay a premium; for self-indulgence like beauty treatments and travel, they treat these as "spiritual pillars" and won’t easily cut budgets.

This "folded consumption" logic aligns naturally with the model of ten-thousand-store retail. Bulk snack stores offer daily consumption items that are "cheap enough to buy without hesitation"—a bag of chips costs only two or three yuan, requiring no thought about whether to buy it. This "zero decision-making cost" consumption experience is something traditional retail cannot provide.

Bulk snack stores use data systems to decide what to sell. The listing and delisting of every SKU is determined by sales data. Products that sell well get increased stock, while those that don’t are eliminated. This process does not rely on anyone’s subjective judgment—it is entirely market-driven.

The result of this mechanism is that county-level consumers finally have a 'vote'. What you like to eat and what you don't like to eat doesn't need to be explained to anyone; you simply express it through your purchasing behavior. Every purchase you make will be recorded, analyzed, and fed back into the product selection process.

This is not an abstract theory but a reality that unfolds every day. For instance, data from a store in a certain county might show that local consumers are particularly fond of spicy-flavored dried tofu. This information is reported to the headquarters, which then contacts manufacturers to increase the supply of spicy tofu, or even develop products specifically for that region. Three months later, you may find several new types of spicy tofu on the shelves that you've never seen before.

This 'demand-driven supply' model was completely unimaginable in the traditional retail era. Back then, there were multiple layers of intermediaries between supply and demand, each with their own vested interests, making it impossible for consumers' voices to reach manufacturers. Now, the supply chain has been compressed to the extreme, and every purchase by consumers directly feeds back to the production end.

This is the true power of the ten-thousand store model: it's not just about 'selling things'; it's about reorganizing the relationship between supply and demand. When you have ten thousand stores and over a hundred million members, you're no longer a mere retailer—you're a platform that controls massive amounts of consumer data. You know what 750 million county-level people want—not what you think they want, but what they tell you through their purchasing behavior.

If efficiency-driven consumption satisfies the 'rational ledger' of county residents, emotional consumption solves another problem:How to obtain happiness at a low cost.

In some county shopping malls, blind boxes, figurines, and 'goods' (badges) are becoming new favorites among young people. A student told New Knowledge that she likes to buy Sanrio co-branded dolls, 'priced around 20 yuan each; these small items bring a bit more fun to life.' Another consumer, while sharing her collection online, said, 'I like to buy 'Baji' and keychains, all within my budget.'

Brands have keenly picked up on this demand. Haoxianglai has set up a 'trendy play area' in its stores, introducing popular IPs such as Sanrio and Nezha 2. Original blind boxes priced at 8.8 yuan each quickly became a hit. This 'trendy play attracts traffic, snacks generate revenue' model allowed Haoxianglai to break out of the industry dilemma of 'low margins and reliance on volume,' building a healthier profit structure.

While blind boxes and 'goods' fulfill the joy of ownership, experiential consumption such as cat cafes, escape rooms, and murder mystery games fulfill the joy of socializing and escaping everyday life.

For example, in Sixian County, Anhui Province, a shop named 'Little Monster Cat Cafe' is becoming a new hotspot for local youth. With an average spending of less than 30 yuan, customers can enjoy coffee and desserts while interacting with over a dozen cats. 'The place is basically full on weekends, so reservations are needed,' the owner told the author. The business started making a profit just six months after opening, with a repurchase rate exceeding 40%.

The success of this cat cafe reflects a deeper shift in county-level consumption: young people are no longer satisfied with 'buying things'; they have started to pursue 'experiences' and 'ambience.'

In smaller cities, venues offering a 'third space' used to be very limited. Cafes were too expensive, bars too noisy, karaoke too outdated, and bookstores too few. Young people looking for a place to sit, chat, and take pictures had very few options. New formats like cat cafes, escape room games, and DIY workshops have filled this gap.

These venues share several common characteristics: first, the cost per customer is not high—spending 30 to 50 yuan allows you to enjoy an afternoon; second, they have social attributes, making them suitable for small groups of friends; third, they are 'photogenic,' ideal for taking pictures to post on social media; fourth, they offer a sense of 'immersion,' providing a temporary escape from daily life's trivialities.

These features precisely address the psychological needs of young people in smaller cities. Unlike their peers in first-tier cities who are overwhelmed by high housing prices and the '996' work culture, these individuals face their own challenges—monotonous life in smaller cities, limited opportunities, and generational conflicts. A cat cafe costing dozens of yuan or a few hours of an escape room game represent the lowest-cost form of 'mental relaxation.'

Investment firms have also begun paying attention to this sector. Analysts suggest that the 'light experience' consumer market at the county level is still in its early stages, with supply far below demand. As retail chains mature, the foot traffic, data, and channel capabilities accumulated by bulk stores can easily extend into experiential formats. Imagine this: after buying snacks at a store, you casually purchase a discount coupon for the neighboring cat cafe at the front desk—this cross-format synergy is becoming a reality.

The rise of emotional consumption in county markets is not coincidental. It is driven by several important societal trends.

First, the expectations of 'upward mobility' among county youth are diminishing. A decade ago, the typical life script for a young person in a county town was to attend university, stay in a big city, and achieve success. Now, this script has become increasingly difficult to follow. High property prices, intense competition, and rising living costs have made it harder to remain in major cities. More and more young people are choosing to 'return home' or 'lie flat' in smaller cities. When the expectation of 'upward mobility' fades, the desire for 'instant gratification' rises—since the future is uncertain, one might as well enjoy the present.

Second, the 'recommendation' effect of social media is spreading to lower-tier regions. The popularity of TikTok, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu has exposed county youth to the same content enjoyed by those in first-tier cities. They see people in big cities playing blind box toys, visiting cat cafes, and showing off collectibles, and they want the same. In the past, such desires went unfulfilled due to insufficient supply; now, widespread retail networks have brought these offerings to their doorsteps, naturally releasing pent-up demand.

Third, the economic foundation in counties is solid enough. Emotional consumption presupposes that 'basic consumption' needs are already met. If affording food is still a challenge, no one will buy blind boxes. Over the past decade, residents' incomes in county areas have steadily increased, the Engel coefficient has continued to decline, basic consumption's share has decreased, and discretionary spending has expanded. This provides an economic foundation for emotional consumption.

These three factors combined have created a 'perfect storm' for the surge in emotional consumption within county-level markets.

Finally, let's broaden our perspective and examine the deeper impact of chain retail on county-level economies.

In the past, the 'infrastructure' of county-level economies was primarily physical – roads, power grids, and communication towers. This infrastructure connected counties to the national market and enabled residents to 'have access to' goods.

The rise of chain retail is now building a 'new infrastructure' for county economies — a nationwide, efficient, and digitized commercial infrastructure. This system allows county residents to 'purchase better' — with more choices, lower prices, and greater shopping convenience.

The value of this 'new infrastructure' cannot be overstated: it has indeed created numerous jobs and driven the development of local supply chains. Some of the products sold in bulk stores are locally produced. As the number of stores increases and procurement scales up, local manufacturers gain more stable orders and greater growth opportunities, contributing to industrial upgrading in county economies.

It has invigorated the commercial ecosystem in counties. The entry of large retail brands has brought fiercer competition and higher standards. Local small shops and family-run businesses either get eliminated or upgrade. Regardless of the outcome, the overall level of commerce in the county improves.

It has changed the consumption mindset of county residents. From 'buying whatever is available' to 'having access to whatever you want to buy,' this shift represents not just convenience but also a return of 'consumer rights' — where consumers finally have real choices. This change happens subtly but has far-reaching impacts.

The 750 million people in county areas are not the 'periphery' of the consumer market but a source of resilience in the new economic cycle. Retail is reshaping their everyday lives in ways that are close, cost-effective, and emotionally engaging: from morning markets to night lights, from careful budgeting to smiling faces. Starting from field research near Hongqiao to achieving scale across thousands of stores today, this story continues. Counties are not exiting but returning — with rational adjustments and emotional vibrancy, heading toward a more robust and warmer future.

As the extensive retail network delivers both efficiency and emotional satisfaction right to their doorsteps, county residents are answering an age-old question in the simplest way possible: what kind of life truly qualifies as 'good'? The answer might be — no waiting, no凑合 (making do), no compromising.

And this revolution is far from over.

21K Views