Since 2021, capital injection and franchisee support have fueled explosive growth in bulk snack stores, seizing business from traditional retail formats. Wherever snack stores open, two roles are inevitably affected. The first is traditional retailers: as long as a bulk snack store opens nearby, whether supermarkets or mom-and-pop shops, related category sales drop by at least 30-40%, and some even go out of business. The second affected role is distributors. In our survey, over half of distributors said snack stores have caused their business to decline. Additionally, another important role affected is brand owners. Many brands that previously looked down on snack stores are now entering snack store systems, even at the risk of destabilizing traditional channel pricing. Over the past period, the New Distribution team conducted extensive surveys, visits, and research, and compiled this white paper—"China Snack Hard Discount White Paper (FMCG Industry Insights 2023)." The white paper multi-dimensionally examines the development trajectory of snack hard discount, deeply deconstructs the snack hard discount model, systematically sorts out the industry's competitive landscape and development trends, and provides the FMCG industry with in-depth understanding and insights into snack hard discount.

Background Analysis: The Background of the Rapid Outbreak of Snack Hard Discount Since the end of 2022, the bulk snack store format has exploded, becoming a rapidly growing snack sales channel. How to understand this phenomenon? This section provides background analysis: first, it starts with the scale of the snack market, explaining the characteristics of snack consumption and the history of channel changes; then it sorts out the development process of bulk snack stores from budding to growth; next, it helps you understand the context of the bulk snack store explosion from the two dimensions of "community category chain" and "hard discount." You will understand that the core of interpreting bulk snack stores is not the "bulk" format, but the "hard discount" business model under the economic cycle background.

Model Deconstruction: The Hard Discount Model of Low Gross Margin and High Turnover Why can snack stores seize market share? On the surface, it relies on low prices, but the core question is: why can they achieve low prices? And why can low prices be sustained? This section deconstructs the model: the three elements of "low gross margin—high turnover—large scale" are the flywheel of snack hard discount success. We will focus on detailed explanations from five dimensions: profit setting, supply chain, product selection, operations, and franchising. Through this section, you will understand that snack hard discount is not simply low-price competition; it is essentially a leveraged hard discount business model, and the instinct of the hard discount model is the reason it impacts the current channel system.

Landscape Interpretation: Snack Hard Discount Industry Landscape and Development Since 2022, snack stores have accelerated expansion, with a large number of new participants entering the snack hard discount track, and the industry is currently in a period of accelerated growth. This section is a competitive landscape analysis: what major chain systems are currently in the market? What trends are emerging in industry expansion? What is the competitive situation among competitors? Besides cross-regional chain brands, what regional snack stores exist? How will the snack hard discount industry evolve? How much imagination space is there for the future? Through the interpretation in this section, you will have an overall grasp of the current development stage and future development trends of snack hard discount.

Survey Summary: Impact and Responses for Brand Owners and Distributors Sales volume is influence. The continuous expansion of snack hard discount has disrupted traditional distribution channels, specifically impacting brand pricing and regional distributor businesses. This section is a survey summary: New Distribution conducted extensive surveys and in-depth interviews with two important groups in the industry chain—brand owners and distributors—and systematically sorted and summarized the survey and interview content, including quantitative questionnaire analysis and some case presentations. Finally, you will see the process and precautions for brand owners cooperating with new channels, as well as the challenges and response strategies faced by distributors.

Trend Insights: Supply Chain Revolution under Consumer Sovereignty Snack hard discount is accelerating rapidly. Some see low-price sales, some see capital bubbles, but from an industry perspective, its real impact lies in the shock to upstream and downstream of the industry chain. This section is trends and insights: after introducing the background of snack hard discount development, deconstructing the snack hard discount model, interpreting the current industry competitive landscape and development stage, and systematically summarizing and analyzing surveys of brand owners and distributors, New Distribution looks forward to future industry trends from the perspective of the industry chain. Hard discount is essentially not a retail format, but a business model that pursues extreme efficiency. Along with it, the era's discourse system will evolve from channel changes under brand sovereignty to a supply chain revolution under consumer sovereignty.

The above is part of the white paper content. For more detailed content, please refer to the full version of the white paper. Add WeChat to obtain the white paper. Attached: Outline of the full version of "China Snack Hard Discount White Paper (FMCG Industry Insights 2023)"

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