A stroll through a Chinese shopping mall can now feel like entering a jewelry boutique — except the cases are filled with nuts, dried fruit and candied dates. Long associated with roadside stalls and inexpensive packets, the country’s traditional “stir‑fried” snack sector has been refashioned over the past decade into a mall‑centric, branded business that charges prices once reserved for discretionary luxury purchases.
The shift is visible in the displays and price tags. Where a handful of sunflower seeds once cost a few yuan, retail outlets from Xueji (薛记) to Qiwang and a string of mall‑first brands sell products that span a wide price spectrum — the market now cites items from 30 to 300 yuan per jin (roughly 60–600 yuan per kilogram), with some novelty snacks and premium mixes fetching more than 300 yuan/kg. Viral social posts lampoon the trend: shoppers joke about needing to treat a trip to a nut counter like a trip to a jeweller, and influencers have nicknamed Xueji “Xueji Jewellery” on Xiaohongshu.
The industry’s transformation is not random. After the early 2000s e‑commerce boom created national snack brands such as Three Squirrels and Bestore, producers sought the next expansion. From about 2018, several chains embraced standardisation, digitisation and deliberate mall placements, upgrading packaging, in‑store service and product development. Xueji, which began as a roadside stall, turned a 2020 breakout hit — a milk‑date confection — into a lasting image shift, proving that a viral product could translate into premium positioning and higher margins.
Retail and marketing tactics have amplified the effect. Bright, giftable packaging, relaxed sampling and design‑forward fixtures make premium snacks easy to buy as gifts or for self‑indulgence. Brands now compete on store aesthetics, limited‑edition flavours and social media storytelling rather than only price. The result is a sector that combines long shelf life and familiar flavours with the consumer cues of luxury retail: exclusivity, amenity and Instagrammable presentation.
The numbers underpin the optimism. Industry estimates put the 2024 Chinese nuts and fried‑snack market above 3000 billion yuan, with forecasts pointing to roughly 4283 billion yuan within five years. Retailers point to rising raw material costs and category upgrades to justify higher prices; Three Squirrels, for example, announced a supplier price adjustment that took effect in November 2025. Still, purchase patterns show nuance: more than 80% of consumers report monthly spending between 20 and 100 yuan on these snacks, indicating the premium tier sits atop a broad base of everyday buyers.
That structural mix is a source of opportunity and risk. Premiumisation offers higher margins and more resilient retail formats than many perishable categories, but it increases exposure to fads and to consumer backlash when prices outrun perceived value. Analysts say product homogeneity is already a concern: more than half of surveyed Chinese consumers see too many similar offerings in snack boutiques. History offers cautionary parallels — brands that expanded on buzz alone have stumbled when quality, service or distinctiveness failed to keep pace with elevated price points.
For shoppers, the new landscape has produced behavioural adjustments: small scoops and sample tactics, weekend‑only splurges tied to credit‑card promos, or deliberate searches for cheaper alternatives. For brands and investors, the task is to sustain novelty and enforce quality controls while proving that premium prices buy more than packaging. The sector’s holiday season is a litmus test: if consumers accept the new norms it will validate a reclassification of a centuries‑old snack category into lifestyle retail; if not, the premium bubble could deflate quickly.