In 2026, retail is undergoing a process of 'filter shattering.' While foreign membership stores are busy constructing middle-class fantasies, Shenyang's 'Happy Farm' uses the smoky aroma of freshly roasted sunflower seeds to pull physical retail back to the ground.
Early February in Shenyang: A 'Heat Wave' at Minus 20 Degrees
In early February, during the peak of the northern New Year shopping season, the air in Shenyang is cold, but on Shenliao Middle Road in Tiexi District, this cold is dispersed by an unusual wave of crowds and heat.
Walking into Happy Farm A Membership Store, the impact is physiological. The first sense captured is smell—while most supermarkets feel cold and sterile in their pursuit of extreme cleanliness, this place is filled with the aroma of freshly roasted sunflower seeds.
In traditional supermarkets, this kind of business, often 'exiled' due to oil smoke and triviality, is boldly placed at the main entrance, serving as the first hook to intercept customer flow.
Then, I find myself in a huge 'contradiction': underfoot are super-large shopping carts of the same size as Sam's Club, overhead is an industrial-style warehouse with no ceiling, but everything in sight resembles a bustling farmers' market.
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On the first floor, customers queue not for limited-edition bags or Moutai, but for peeled sugarcane and freshly made 'Kangleguo' popcorn.
In Sam's Club, such queues usually appear only at new product tasting stations. But at Happy Farm, customers queue just for peeled sugarcane and street-style popcorn. The contrast is almost overwhelming.
Up on the second floor, the scene of fresh cutting and steaming hot food instantly dissolves the so-called 'warehouse coldness.' Instead of polite but distant sales pitches, there are various food stalls—the aroma of freshly baked Swiss rolls, the penetrating shouts from freshly made fried chicken and pancake stalls.
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At this moment, I truly feel that this is not a supermarket, but a farmers' market disguised as a 'membership store.'
From 'Roadside Fresh Food' to a '28,000-Square-Meter Oddity'
Over the past year, discussions about Happy Farm have been endless in the retail circle, but few know it is a mutation of a local retail brand in the 'red ocean battle.'
Its founder, Cui Xiaojun, started in Jilin and entered Shenyang's fresh food circle in 2016. At that time, his competitors were tough players like Xinlongjia and Dili Fresh. In that phase, Happy Farm competed on the primitive accumulation of the supply chain: direct sourcing from origins, fast in and out, and low prices to attract traffic.
2023 was a key turning point. Carrefour's Shenyang Jinniu store closed, leaving a huge 27,000-square-meter shell. For most traditional supermarkets, such a large former site is a 'negative asset' due to high operating costs. But Happy Farm saw an opportunity—Chinese consumers are experiencing aesthetic fatigue under 'consumption stratification.'
Mr. Cui's strategy was bold: retain Sam's 'form' (large space, high turnover, streamlined SKUs) and inject the 'soul' of a market (freshly made, lively atmosphere, extremely low entry barriers). He took the fresh food operational capabilities accumulated in small stores and 'violently transplanted' them, magnified ninefold, creating this retail oddity known as the 'Northeast version of Sam's Club.'
Shenyang is never short of excellent retail enterprises. Sam's Club's Heping Changbai store in Shenyang achieves annual sales of 3.55 billion yuan, ranking seventh among Sam's single stores and serving as a benchmark for the Northeast region.
So why can Happy Farm, also a membership store, withstand the pressure from Sam's? The answer lies in its product structure formula: 30% traffic-driving bestsellers + 40% core profit products + 20% differentiated specialty products + 10% high-margin supplementary products.
1. 30% Traffic-Driving Bestsellers (Visual Highlights): For example, the 0.5-hour queue for peeled sugarcane and freshly opened durian. These may not make money, but they are the 'visual anchors' of traffic, making customers feel 'this place is busy, so the products must be good.'
2. 40% Core Profit Products (Stable Foundation): These are the 3,000 streamlined SKUs. They abandon the traditional supermarket's 'many and varied' approach, following a 'wide category, narrow product' route.
3. 20% Differentiated Specialty Products (Local Soul): The Swiss rolls and roast chicken here benchmark against Sam's, but the more distinctive feature is the three 'food streets.' Siyi Dumplings, freshly made tofu, and large pancakes—these items with temperature and taste memories are a moat that e-commerce can never cross.
The most aggressive move is the 50-yuan stored-value membership card. Sam's 260-yuan fee is a 'ticket,' while Happy Farm's 50 yuan is a 'pre-deposit.' It sets no barriers but uses this 50 yuan to convert casual customers into 'semi-loyal members.'
The Factional War in China's Retail World
Looking back from 2026, it's easy to see that China's retail industry is undergoing an unprecedented explosion of species. Behind this phenomenon is essentially a deep grading of consumer demand and a reconstruction of circles.
We cannot simply summarize it as 'upgrading' or 'downgrading'; a more accurate description is: different consumers are seeking their own optimal solutions in different dimensions.
Some pursue 'convenience and premium.' They are willing to pay a 260-yuan annual fee to enter Sam's Club or order from Hema for delivery, essentially paying for the endorsement of a global supply chain, exquisite packaging, and a minimalist selection process.
For this middle-class customer group, time cost and the 'certainty' brought by the brand are the greatest value. The popularity of Sam's and Hema proves that this elite logic based on quality trust still has an unshakable moat today.
Another group—or the same group in different life scenarios—begins to turn to 'purity and a sense of gain.' This is the soil for the explosion of formats like Happy Farm and snack discount stores.
They are no longer willing to pay for expensive 'filters' and 'brand premiums.' They want the hot air of freshly roasted sunflower seeds, the freshness of queuing to peel sugarcane, and the practicality behind a 50-yuan stored-value card.
This grading does not mean one is superior to another, but rather a return to the essence of retail. In the past, the retail industry tried to use a single hypermarket model to meet everyone's needs, resulting in collective mediocrity. Today, the market is being segmented:
- Sam's Club/Hema: Hold the high ground of 'consumer aesthetics' and 'efficient product selection.'
- Happy Farm/Leerle: Hold the bottom line of 'production efficiency' and 'physical cost-performance.'
- Pangdonglai/Xianfeng Life: Reshape consumer mindset and create life scenarios.
- Snacks Are Busy/Haoxianglai: Category killers, overtaking in the snack category.
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The founding of Happy Farm is not about defeating Sam's, but about turning local flavor into the ultimate in the shadows where Sam's light doesn't reach. It proves that on this land of Northeast China, which values practicality, putting the vitality of a 'farmers' market' into a 'warehouse-style' mold can also produce astonishing nuclear fusion.
In Conclusion
My visit to Happy Farm showed me the vibrant side of Chinese retail. Whether among the quiet, orderly shelves of Sam's Club or in front of the noisy, steaming processing counters of Happy Farm, consumers are voting with their feet.
The essence of retail has never changed; what has changed is our perspective on consumers.
The future of the retail world should belong to every enterprise that can understand local tastes, hold the bottom line of the supply chain, and provide emotional value or cost-performance value for specific groups. They all deserve to have their own names in this era of consumption stratification.
And Happy Farm, this 'retail oddity' from Shenyang, has written its own chapter in China's diversified retail experiment with its freshly roasted sunflower seeds and Kangleguo popcorn.