Fresh snack stores see long queues and high spending, but capital stays away

From Sushi to Snacks: A Shift in Consumer Obsession

The latest craze sweeping Chinese social media has shifted from sushi, grilled fish, and hotpot buffets to a new obsession: short-shelf-life, premium-priced snacks.

On social platforms, shoppers describe the experience of visiting Jinlimen as "chaotic, breathless, and disorienting." The phrase "storming Jinlimen" has become a trending shopping itinerary, while in northern markets where Jinlimen has yet to expand, local competitor Yili has taken the lead. Along with brands like Jiduoquan and Pumama — which originated in Changsha and Ningbo respectively — these early regional players are now expanding nationwide, setting the stage for a snack war that defies traditional retail logic.

Compared to the razor-thin margins of bulk snack stores, fresh snacks offer high unit prices and high profits — a temptation too great for industry giants to ignore. Yet beneath the surface of this booming business, risks are plainly visible.

The Frenzy: Queuing for Hours, Just for Snacks

At a Jinlimen store on the B1 floor of a shopping mall in Nanjing's Xinjiekou district, the queue stretches all the way to Metro Exit 5.

Office worker Chen Ke anxiously calculates how long she'll have to wait. Even sneaking out of work before the end of her shift, she faces nearly 40 minutes just to check out — and that's only for snacks. If she wants a freshly made drink, she'll need to queue again for another 20 minutes.

On social media, shoppers describe the experience as "a battlefield." "Storming Jinlimen" has become a trendy weekend activity, and the store's logo-printed shopping bags are the latest fashion accessory. The queue snakes around the store multiple times, staff constantly guide customers, and workers rush through the crowd restocking shelves. An LED screen reads: "Good flavors are worth the wait." At peak hours, Chen Ke has to lift her shopping basket above her head just to move through the 400-square-meter store.

Visual China captured the scene: a packed Jinlimen fresh snack supermarket.

Chen Ke wonders if the effort is worth it. But queuing is like that — it starts as a whim, but once you've invested time and energy, you feel compelled to see it through. This time, the enthusiasm has shifted from sushi and hotpot to snacks with short shelf lives and premium prices.

The phenomenon isn't limited to Nanjing. In Wuxi, a shopper queued 90 minutes for a popular freshly made drink, only to find most items sold out. In Changzhou, customers entering at 10 a.m. couldn't check out until 11:30 a.m. In Shenzhen's Dayun Tiandi, even on a hot weekday, the queue stretched over 100 meters outdoors.

To win this battle, customers must come prepared. Some arrive at 8 a.m. for a store that opens at 10 a.m., just to be among the first in. Staff are equally stretched. In Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the checkout counter was moved outside to free up space inside. In Hangzhou's Xiaoshan district, even the neighboring Holiland bakery benefited from the crowd, with staff holding up promotional signs hoping to lure impatient shoppers.

Chen Ke studied queue strategies on social media and saved lists of must-buy items, but what she ends up with depends entirely on restock luck. Her off-peak strategy helped — but only a little.

Popular drinks are strictly limited. The best-selling Longan Osmanthus Coconut and Fresh Milk Jasmine Ice Brew cost just 6.5 yuan per bottle — seemingly great value. Other hot items include 6-yuan shrimp crackers and 10-yuan buckets of fries.

Visual China shows the Jinlimen store in Nanjing's Xinjiekou.

One mother said her high school senior wanted to try new products, so she queued for two hours. But with six family members and a limit of four bottles per person, not everyone could get one. Jinlimen has since tightened limits to two bottles per person, sparking complaints about "hunger marketing." In response, the brand launched delivery services, but limited product availability has instead fueled a reselling market. Prices: 10 yuan for items under 100 yuan, 20 yuan for items under 200 yuan, and 15% of the total for orders over 300 yuan. Popular drinks cost 5 yuan per bottle, with surcharges for more than two bottles, and prices rise 20%-50% on holidays. Even Sam's Club resellers are envious.

Over 1,000 kilometers away in Beijing, office worker Qian Yun shares Chen Ke's experience. Jinlimen hasn't entered the northern market yet, so she queues at Yili — a Shenyang-born brand specializing in short-shelf-life fresh snacks. Yili's bestsellers are chestnut-flavored: 8-yuan chestnut buns, 6-yuan chestnut cakes, and 5.8-yuan sugar-roasted chestnut ice cream. Also popular: 38-yuan-per-jin golden crispy fries.

What draws customers to these stores is the aroma of freshly made food. The product range includes baked goods, braised meats, freshly made drinks, dried fruits, and more. Unlike traditional bulk snack stores, these fresh snack shops emphasize short shelf lives, health, and no additives — appealing to workers like Chen Ke and Qian Yun.

Compared to newly opened Jinlimen stores, Yili's Beijing locations — eight in total, in busy areas like Chaoyang and Haidian — have stabilized. Qian Yun visited the Chaoyang Joy City branch and was surprised to find it still one of the busiest stores on B1, even after months of operation. The checkout line snaked outside, and she nearly cut in line by accident.

This "fresh" and "hot" business has become a social media trend. People share queue strategies and product reviews. From Jinlimen and Yili in the north and south, to Jiduoquan and Pumama from Changsha and Ningbo, the first wave of regional fresh snack players is expanding nationwide. A snack war that upends traditional logic is about to erupt.

Land Grab: Battle for the B1 Floor

The flood of customers brings substantial cash flow.

According to media reports and company data, Jinlimen's Nanjing Xinjiekou store — its first in East China — generated over 1 million yuan in revenue in its first three days. Its Changzhou store broke the regional single-store record on opening day, and the Hangzhou flagship set a national daily sales record. Its main rival, Jiduoquan (also from Changsha), reported that its Hefei Mixc store achieved over 6 million yuan in first-month revenue.

In the north, Yili's performance is equally striking. In 2025, Yili's annual revenue reached 500 million yuan, with a net profit margin of 10%-15%.

The fresh snack sector is booming. According to iiMedia Research, the休闲食品 (snack food) industry was worth about 1.12 trillion yuan in 2020, growing to 1.18 trillion yuan by 2025 — modest growth. But the 2026 China Snack Consumption Trends white paper shows that fresh snacks, as a subcategory, grew from less than 50 billion yuan in 2020 to 180 billion yuan in 2025 — a threefold increase in five years. CICC research estimates the sector could reach 500-1000 billion yuan in the future.

To maintain their positions, fresh snack players must accelerate expansion. Speed and precision in reaching target customers are key.

Jinlimen's official account posts almost exclusively about new store openings — five in Wuhan alone. Founded in Changsha in 2015 as a roasted nut shop called Jinlimen, the brand didn't leave Hunan until May 2026. By September, it had over 40 directly operated stores.

Rival Jiduoquan, also from Changsha, is following a similar path. Backed by its parent company (which also owns the Changsha stinky tofu brand "Black Classic"), Jiduoquan was officially founded in March 2025 and has pursued rapid expansion, targeting South China alongside Jinlimen.

Yili, based in Shenyang, dominates the northern market. With 44 directly operated stores and its own factory in Shenyang, it has expanded to Beijing and Tianjin, still relying on its home factory for supply. As competition intensifies, Yili is eyeing the south, opening stores in Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu, and building a factory in Nanjing. The company's official announcement reads: "100+ stores nationwide are opening gradually."

Visual China shows a Yili nutco store.

A look at the locations reveals a pattern: fresh snack brands are all targeting the B1 floors of popular shopping malls.

For these brands, B1 is the most stable traffic source. It's where people naturally "grab something on the go." The core consumer group — young office workers who value emotional experience and convenience — are most likely to shop on B1, where prices are friendlier than upper floors.

Traditional snack players are also taking notice. In January 2026, bulk snack giant Mingming Henmang launched a fresh snack brand called You.Tuijian, while competitor Haolixiang added baked goods and fruit to its "Quanshi Xuanze 5.0" store format. In July 2026, LYFEN opened its first global "LYFEN Life Fresh Life" store on B1 of Wujiaochang Wanda in Shanghai.

In fact, the concept of "fresh snacks" was first proposed by traditional brand Laiyifen in 2020, with a "five-fresh" system covering raw materials to delivery. But Laiyifen never opened dedicated fresh snack stores, instead struggling against bulk snack competitors. The company, listed as "the first snack stock on the main board" a decade ago, posted losses in 2024 and 2025, with a net loss of 92.13 million yuan in the first half of 2026.

Bulk snack giants face their own challenges. After Snacks Are Busy and Zhao Yiming Snacks merged into Mingming Henmang, achieving 10,000 stores and a Hong Kong listing, the market response was lukewarm, with stock prices falling. Recently, Mingming Henmang faced backlash after multiple stores were found to have "short weights" — for example, a customer bought four beef jerky sticks, was charged 64.58 yuan, but a re-weigh showed only 17.29 yuan. The company apologized, promised tenfold compensation, and installed nationwide scale monitoring systems.

Compared to the thin margins of bulk snacks, fresh snacks' high unit prices and profits are irresistible. But the risks are equally clear.

The Price of Freshness

Amid the rapid expansion, some have quietly hit pause.

Jiduoquan, which once required franchisees to invest over 1 million yuan per store, closed its franchise channel in July this year. Co-founder and VP Li Zongwen said in an interview that the 2026 target was over 600 stores, but as of August, only about 200 remained.

The tightening of franchises reflects necessary self-correction. Jiduoquan, which relies on multiple contract manufacturers, has faced repeated food safety issues. On social media, customers report finding foreign objects in duck necks, moldy cakes, and hair in chestnut pumpkin pies. The faster the expansion, the more severe the quality control problems.

Rival Jinlimen faced its own scandal in early 2026, when a contract manufacturer was found to have improperly repackaged "lemon and chili boneless chicken feet," violating food safety standards. The investigation also revealed poor factory hygiene. Jinlimen set aside 12 million yuan for compensation.

Visual China shows Jinlimen's konjac noodles and lemon chili boneless chicken feet.

Short-shelf-life fresh snacks face inevitable spoilage risks. Across brands, negative reviews on social media often cite stale, sour, or poor-tasting products. Qian Yun recalls that at Yili, staff reminded her that baked cakes should be eaten within 24 hours, fresh milk tea lasts only one day, and even dried fruits and nuts rarely last a week.

In traditional snack retail, longer shelf lives mean greater inventory flexibility. Products can be stored longer, and stores have more time to sell through stock. But in fresh snack stores, "date traps" appear. One customer picked up a box of mini cakes with a production date of June 2026 and an expiration date of December — a six-month shelf life, far from what she expected from "fresh."

The faster stores open, the tighter the supply chain must be. Jinlimen invested over 100 million yuan in a production base in Changzhou to serve East China, and a Dongguan base to cover South China. Jiduoquan plans 20 production bases nationwide, with a new base in Changsha exceeding 150,000 square meters. As stores move farther from production bases, cold chain, warehousing, and logistics must keep pace. Supply chain speed determines store efficiency.

On the sales side, short-shelf-life products face tougher challenges. Baked goods, fresh braised items, and made-to-order drinks often lose value after a single day. Stores must accurately predict daily demand. Every link — production, logistics, warehousing — requires precise management. Any failure compromises the "freshness" customers seek.

Today, consumers demand healthy, clean, and fresh food like never before. Every bite is scrutinized for calories and additives. Only after passing these checks can a product become a favorite of modern urban workers — and it must also taste good, or the calories aren't worth it. Short-shelf-life snacks tap into this health sensitivity, allowing brands to command premium prices.

When Yili first opened, Qian Yun visited and was drawn to the store's design and layout, which evoked a healthy lifestyle. There was no loud background music; shopping felt like browsing Muji's snack section. At Jiduoquan, labels indicating "snack ingredient purification levels" reinforced the health message. Grade A snacks were marked: "Only natural main ingredients, no additives, or only lightly processed." It felt reassuring.

These are Qian Yun's favorite purchases. At Yili, her first pick was the signature sweet potato strips — baked on-site, no additives. The texture was crispy outside, chewy inside, with a moist "freshness."

Yili nutco official shows the signature golden crispy sweet potato strips.

But she quickly learned the cost of "freshness." At checkout, she was mildly shocked: 9 sweet potato strips cost 22 yuan. At most, they equaled two small sweet potatoes. Not long before, she had bought raw sweet potatoes at the supermarket — equally sweet — for 22 yuan, enough to fill an entire box.

The high prices gave her a sense of being "overcharged." She picked three items casually, and the total approached 100 yuan. On social media, someone shared buying 10 snacks for 350 yuan. Worse, the short shelf life forces quick consumption; if they expire, it's pure waste.

First-time fresh snack buyers may be impressed by trendy items, but repeat customers soon notice a pattern: "freshness" often means familiarity. Jinlimen's must-buy shrimp crackers have near-identical counterparts at Jiduoquan. Yili's fresh jasmine milk tea is essentially the same as Pumama's.

Different fresh snack stores share similar SKUs — perhaps because these items have been repeatedly validated as bestsellers. Jiduoquan co-founder Li Zongwen admitted in an interview that "copying homework" exists in the industry. Beyond similar SKUs, even brand identities can be hard to distinguish. Jinlimen's red-and-blue logo has spawned many "look-alike" versions with similar colors and visual styles.

Tasting Yili's chestnut milk cake, Chen Ke was reminded of the earlier网红 (internet-famous) brand Hutouju. She had queued for hours for those pastries too, but Hutouju expanded and then disappeared. Today, similar products are available at other bakeries — nothing special.

This may explain why capital has been slow to move. In a hot consumer investment era, Jinlimen, Jiduoquan, or Yili could have been darlings of the primary market. But today, despite impressive growth data and valuations above 2 billion yuan, no real investment has been publicly disclosed — only market rumors of capital discussions.

Fresh snacks are a hot business, but also an expensive one. Brands must operate with higher efficiency to offset spoilage, attract dense foot traffic to spread costs, and continuously deliver novelty to keep customers coming back.

Queues create buzz. Health and short shelf lives create premium pricing. But when more and more brands sell similar milk tea, cakes, braised items, and dried fruits — and when the excitement of first-time tasting fades — the real question becomes: beyond "freshness," why should customers return?

(Names in the article are pseudonyms.)

References:

1. Exclusive: Yili nutco, Net Profit Margin 10%-15%, Annual Store Expansion 50% — Business Observer
2. Star Team Operations: Jinlimen Changzhou and Shenzhen Factories to Start Production in May, Expanding in East and South China — Business Observer
3. One in Three Snacks Nationwide Comes from Hunan! Changsha's New Consumer Species Catches Fire — Xiaoxiang Morning News
4. Jiduoquan Co-founder Li Zongwen: Fresh Snacks Have 'Copying Homework,' But Homogeneity Is Premature; Product Strength Matters; 20 Production Bases Planned Nationwide — Xiaoshidai

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