Snack stores are the harshest test consumerism imposes on humanity. Faced with luxury goods, I remain unmoved; mention Michelin-starred restaurants, and I show little interest. But on recent trips back to my hometown, every time I step out for a stroll, I inevitably end up ducking into a bright, spotless snack store, entering a state of flow at the sight of single-digit prices. By the time I snap out of it, I'm holding two baskets, queuing behind a gaggle of kids and their parents, ready to check out. Looking up as I leave, the sign reads three characters: "Haoxianglai" (Good to Come). Well, you've got that right—I really do want to come again. What's the secret behind today's snack stores that makes them so irresistible? At first, I thought I'd stumbled upon a hidden gem, but after big data tracked my spending habits, I learned that my beloved little store, "Haoxianglai," is actually the "new top star of the snack world." It hit me—of course! Every time I go to "stock up," I have to compete for a place in line with neighbors who come in pairs or with their families. That's top-tier popularity for sure. Big data opened a new world for me: netizens have compiled "Haoxianglai" recommendation lists and stockpiling guides, categorized and endlessly updated: Whether you have a sweet tooth, a spicy craving, or a preference for salty snacks, there's a plethora of options to match your taste; for those watching their figure but can't resist, there are low-calorie roundups; for those too busy to cook but famished, there are breads, noodles, and sandwiches to serve as staples, even malatang (spicy hot pot); and for those simply looking to satisfy a craving, you're in luck—the "ceiling" products recommended by netizens could patch up the sky like Nüwa. And it's genuinely cheap: a serving of mixed noodles costs 3.8 yuan, a box of cookies 1.9 yuan. Every checkout makes me feel like I've traveled back 20 years, when the weather was clear and a freshly baked pineapple bun cost just 0.5 yuan. "Is this really 2024 pricing?" After shopping at Haoxianglai, people often exclaim in awe as their consumer worldview crumbles. The reason everyone raves about how "great it is to shop there" is that Haoxianglai starts with consumer needs during product selection. Nearly 2,000 SKUs in the store are mostly aligned with everyday life scenarios and come from brands consumers know and love. Yang Jun, a partner in Wanchen Group's retail business, once told the media that the selection process combines consumer awareness and demand for categories, evaluating from multiple dimensions like taste, flavor, and raw materials. They aim to choose brands that have been validated by the market and, within those brands, the products with the highest consumer acceptance. Now this "new top star" is on a tear. Public data shows Haoxianglai has nearly 10,000 stores nationwide, with a significant number of new openings each month. While aggressively building a presence around consumers' daily lives, Haoxianglai is also leveraging nostalgic IP collaborations and opening "snack paradise stores" to make people feel it's not just "delicious" but also "fun." In the past August, Haoxianglai teamed up with Classic Ultraman across five cities—Chongqing, Tianjin, Yantai, Hefei, and Nanjing—hosting grand carnivals that drew massive crowds. First, don't underestimate this just because you're too familiar with Ultraman; the more commonplace it seems, the more it proves the IP's power—"It's Ultraman, after all." This globally popular IP, distributed in nearly 100 countries, holds the Guinness record for the most spin-off series, with cumulative online audio-visual views exceeding 50 billion. It appeals to all ages, genders, and nationalities, boasting over 300 million fans in China alone. Unsurprisingly, Haoxianglai's leverage of such a major IP also mobilized a large number of citizens to participate enthusiastically. At the "Haoxianglai × Classic Ultraman Fantasy Carnival" events, multiple Ultraman photo spots and game areas were surrounded by kids and adults who "believe in the light." The little ones got their fix of fighting monsters, while adults relived their dreams of being superheroes. Amid the buzz, lights, and enthusiasm, snack counters were right nearby, so attendees could grab a few bags on the spot, satisfying all senses. This immersive IP consumption experience, combining emotional interaction and taste satisfaction, attracted many family customers, allowing them to entertain kids and stock up on snacks simultaneously, balancing socializing and entertainment. They could have fun while stocking up on a week's worth of snacks for the family, and maybe even make some like-minded friends along the way. The public's enthusiasm is reflected in Haoxianglai's performance: the exclusive carnival merchandise directly boosted sales of the "Cheetos" product line, and in the five cities where events were held, local stores saw dual increases in foot traffic and sales. This boost will be sustained and long-term. By inviting Ultraman, the top children's IP, Haoxianglai demonstrates the group's strength and resources, and it also captures consumer mindshare. Deepening its community presence and hosting brand carnivals right where consumers are helps build the image of a "snack paradise at your doorstep." The signal of "delicious and fun" adds points with trend-loving young people and is especially appealing to family customers looking for places to take their kids. So, what's the story behind "Haoxianglai"? How can it sell snacks so affordably and even bring in an international IP like Ultraman? This "new top star of the snack world," which is opening stores at a rapid pace, has only been around for two years. In August 2022, Haoxianglai's parent company, Wanchen Group, officially entered the snack retail sector. Through this move, it successively integrated or incubated five bulk snack brands: Haoxianglai, Laiyoupin, Yadiyadi, Laoban Daren, and Lu Xiaochang. It must be said that Wanchen Group has vision. Leveraging over two decades of experience in the leisure food industry, Wanchen keenly identified the opportunity in bulk snacks and seized this industry that would later shine; Then, in September 2023, a year later, with sharp business acumen and decisive action, it unified its four brands (excluding "Laoban Daren") under the name "Haoxianglai Brand Snacks." This merger marked the beginning of the consolidation phase in the hard-discount snack sector, after which brands in this space have often sought growth through integration. Wanchen Group's vision is the result of years of honing. Founded in 2011, Wanchen Group was originally called Wanchen Bio, focusing on industrialized cultivation and research of edible fungi, including the cultivation, production, and sale of enoki, crab, white beech, and seafood mushrooms. It rose to the top of the edible fungi industry, becoming a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization and a globally leading edible fungi company. In April 2021, Wanchen Bio listed on the ChiNext board—making Haoxianglai the only brand in the bulk snack track backed by a listed company. On the surface, it's a mushroom leader diversifying, but Wanchen Bio actually has deep roots in snacks: its controlling shareholder established a snack workshop as early as 2007, and even earlier, the "Hanxiacao" brand, founded in 1995, is a China Well-Known Trademark, with long-term dedication to building the leisure food industry chain and modern marketing. From operational capability to industrial resources, Wanchen has a solid foundation. Additionally, the teams Wanchen acquired through mergers are industry veterans who built regional leading brands, such as Yuan Zhenqin, founder of "Laoban Daren," who is considered one of the pioneers of the bulk snack industry. In 2023, Wanchen Bio was renamed Wanchen Group and rapidly accelerated toward becoming a snack industry leader. Financial reports show that by the end of 2023, the company's hard-discount snack stores reached 4,726, and by mid-2024, that number grew to 6,638, with continued high-speed growth. In fiscal 2023, the company achieved operating revenue of 9.294 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1,592.03%. Among this, the bulk snack business segment generated 8.759 billion yuan in revenue, up 13,057.81% year-on-year, making one wonder if the decimal point was misplaced. In the first half of 2024, this segment continued its rapid growth, with operating revenue of 10.674 billion yuan, a 447.78% increase year-on-year, accounting for 97.79% of the company's total revenue. How does Haoxianglai excel in the hard-discount snack business? The answer lies in the industry's characteristics. This business emphasizes "more, closer, better, and cheaper." "More" is easy to understand: being a standalone snack store, it naturally offers a wider variety than convenience stores or small shops; but it can't just pad the shelves—product selection must be rigorous, the storefront bright, and product quality and shopping experience must be "good." "Closer" is even more critical: a snack store's essential quality is proximity to home. Snack consumption is characterized by high frequency, immediacy, and a large "impulse purchase" component, so it primarily occurs offline. According to Euromonitor, in 2023, e-commerce accounted for only 19.6% of leisure food sales. In this context, "at your doorstep" is the battleground for snack stores. Of course, convenience stores and small supermarkets might also have the "closeness" advantage, but snack stores stand out with "cheaper." Since snacks have low unit prices, even small price differences are noticed—just look at how a 0.5 yuan increase in Coca-Cola makes headlines. So, low prices are a snack store's killer feature for attracting customers. According to the "China Snack Hard-Discount White Paper" released by New Distribution in 2023, bulk snack stores that go down to the community level are 20%-40% cheaper than traditional retail stores. China Merchants Securities statistics also show that bulk snack stores are 20%-75% cheaper than supermarkets, 44%-85% cheaper than convenience stores, and 7%-59% cheaper than e-commerce. How is "more, closer, better, cheaper" achieved? Through the supply chain. The business model of hard-discount snack stores is simple: use the supply chain and scale to spread costs. On one hand, by establishing direct connections with source factories, they eliminate the distributor link and reduce product markups. On the other hand, the more stores and the larger the scale, the more bargaining power they have in negotiations with source factories. Haoxianglai, backed by Wanchen, happens to have a strong supply chain advantage. In addition to years of accumulated industry chain experience and resource networks, Wanchen Group's supplier list includes leading brands across various food categories. In the candy and pastry category, it has strategic partnerships with Want Want, Orion, Mars Wrigley, Hsu Fu Chi, and Alpenliebe; in beverages and instant drinks, Nestlé, Pepsi-Cola, C'estbon, Yili, and Mengniu are on board; in convenience foods, it has brought in Master Kong, Uni-President, Baixiang, Nongshim, and Haidilao, showcasing its supply chain strength. Furthermore, Wanchen is actively building its distribution network, effectively reducing logistics costs. At the end of 2023, Wanchen Group joined forces with JD.com, reaching a strategic cooperation between its subsidiary Nanjing Wanhao and JD Property, while also witnessing the completion of Haoxianglai's new warehousing center in Tianjin. It is reported that the Tianjin warehouse has an overall operational storage area of 19,000 square meters, capable of covering integrated warehousing and distribution services for Tianjin, Hebei, and surrounding cities, providing Haoxianglai with daily delivery services that guarantee arrival within 24 hours within a 300-kilometer radius. Currently, Wanchen Group's bulk snack segment has 35 warehousing and distribution centers (excluding those under construction), leading the industry. By selecting the best partner brands and products, and layering on the effect of large-scale centralized procurement, Haoxianglai maximizes "ultimate quality-price ratio." In the words of Yang Jun, partner in Wanchen Group's retail business: "We save the traditional intermediary costs and pass them on to end consumers, ensuring they get the best prices at our channels." Since officially entering the scene in 2022, Wanchen Group quickly climbed to the top tier in the bulk snack track, which was once a fiercely competitive and rapidly growing arena. Two years on, as competition intensifies, the Matthew effect is becoming more pronounced under the "scale dilutes costs" business model, and leading players will continue to accelerate store openings and amplify their advantages. A report from "Retail Thinking+" points out that as of the third quarter of 2023, Wanchen's bulk snack business had achieved inventory turnover of 24 times per year, with inventory days at just around 15 days, indicating high operational efficiency. And the potential of this track is far from exhausted. Multiple media outlets report that since New Year's Day this year, searches for "snack discount stores" on Meituan have increased 393.7% year-on-year, with review volume up 250%. During the same period, transaction volume for "snack discount stores" on the platform surged 517.6%, order volume increased 232.5%, and user numbers grew 241.2% compared to the same period last year. Looking ahead, Haoxianglai will continue to expand and further enhance its scale advantages. Wanchen Group has stated that it will continue to invest in brand building, supply chain development, operations team building, and franchisee support in the national market to promote steady growth. Looking back, it's not hard to understand why Haoxianglai, with its deep industry roots and solid supply chain, could become a leading bulk snack brand in just two years. But the word "leading" isn't enough to capture it. Take, for example, the carnival events held in five cities—Chongqing, Tianjin, Yantai, Hefei, and Nanjing—in collaboration with the Ultraman IP. These are Haoxianglai's efforts to go deep into communities, interact directly with consumers, build emotional connections, and convey the signal of "delicious and fun" in a vivid way. Both "delicious" and "fun" are important: the former reflects supply chain strength, while the latter characterizes a differentiated image. Looking to the future, to maintain a "leading" position in the red ocean of bulk snacks, differentiation is crucial. From this perspective, focusing on "fun" and deepening the supply chain are both important. The latter is naturally the foundation, but the former is needed to strengthen emotional connections with consumers and enhance loyalty. Only by strengthening consumer loyalty through emotional connections can we keep people saying, "I really want to come again." ****Recommended Reading