9.9元无限吃 火锅店为什么都抢着卖自助蔬菜？

This article centers on the booming trend of low-priced self-service vegetables sweeping China’s hot pot industry. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Originating in Guizhou, this model has broken out of its regional origin and gone viral nationwide. From street-style hot pot stalls to major mid-to-top-tier hot pot brands including Haidilao and Xiongmao Laile, almost all players have rolled out related offerings, priced between RMB 9.9 and RMB 26.8 per person. It has now become a standard offering for most hot pot restaurants. Meituan data shows that searches for "Guizhou wild vegetables" have skyrocketed 23-fold in a year, and related topics for "wild vegetable self-service hot pot" on Douyin have accumulated nearly 50 million views, highlighting the trend’s enormous popularity.

2. Restaurants do not launch low-priced self-service vegetables purely as a customer gesture. The core logic is to use vegetables as a low-cost traffic hook: self-service vegetables themselves barely turn a profit, and restaurants rely on high-margin hot pot bases, meats, and add-on items ordered by customers after they enter the store to generate revenue.

3. General consumers should note that most restaurants only unlock self-service vegetables when customers order a hot pot base and meat. Diners should avoid purchasing unnecessary items just for the low price and going over their original dining budget.

Competition in the hot pot sector is intensifying, and self-service vegetables have emerged as a new traffic-driven marketing tactic in the industry. Key takeaways for brands are as follows:

1. On the consumer trend side, consumers increasingly prioritize cost-effective, healthy, and fresh dishes. Self-service wild vegetables naturally generate organic buzz, with extremely high search volumes and social media engagement, making them an ideal customer acquisition tool for brands. Brands can also extend the concept with activities such as wild vegetable popularization displays, fresh-harvest video content, and wild vegetable blind boxes to drive social sharing, reinforce the brand’s healthy positioning, and boost customer repurchase rates.

2. On the profitability side, low-margin self-service vegetables drive foot traffic, increase table turnover to spread fixed costs such as rent and utilities, and generate net profit from high-margin hot pot bases, meats, and add-on products. Case in point: Chen’s People, which offers a RMB 12.9 wild vegetable self-service option, achieves an overall gross margin of over 55%. After adjusting its business model to add self-service vegetables, Xiongmao Laile saw its labor costs drop by 2 percentage points, keeping overall costs balanced.

3. Key risks to note: This model has low barriers to entry, and the window for differentiation dividends is less than two years. Once it becomes a standard industry offering, it will lose its traffic-drawing effect. Brands also face pressure from high supply chain costs and difficult waste control, so early supply chain layout is required for long-term operation.

Self-service vegetables represent a new growth opportunity for the hot pot industry, but also carry multiple risks that hot pot restaurant operators need to avoid. Key takeaways for hot pot sellers are as follows:

1. On the opportunity side: Consumers widely accept low-priced self-service vegetables today. Launching this model can effectively boost store foot traffic and customer satisfaction, leading to higher repurchase rates. Certain versions of the model can also optimize labor costs: for example, adding desserts to the self-service bar for customer self-pickup cuts the need for dedicated staff, offsetting rising ingredient costs and keeping overall expenses balanced. Well-run operations can achieve an overall gross margin of over 55%.

2. The model is highly flexible: Sellers can choose a package that includes both hot pot base and vegetables, or separate pricing that requires customers to order base and meat to unlock self-service. It can be priced per person, per table, or added as an upgrade to existing services, making it adaptable for restaurants of all positioning.

3. Risk warning: While barriers to entry are low, ongoing operating costs are high. The differentiation dividend window is less than two years, and operators face challenges including unstable seasonal supply, high food waste, and increased costs from operational adjustments. Late followers without supply chain advantages are very likely to be squeezed out of the market.

The booming self-service vegetable trend in the hot pot industry has created new business opportunities and raised new requirements for vegetable producers and hot pot-related supply factories. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. On the demand side: A large number of hot pot restaurants across China are rolling out self-service vegetable offerings, driving a sharp increase in demand for standardized, stably supplied seasonal and wild vegetables. Suppliers need to maintain a rich variety of products and consistent fresh quality year-round; top-tier chain brands even require dedicated in-house production bases. Suppliers that can meet these requirements will secure large, steady orders.

2. Competitive requirements: Local Guizhou suppliers benefit from natural advantages for direct vegetable sourcing, allowing the RMB 10-plus price point to operate profitably. However, in first-tier cities, requirements are far higher for origin direct delivery, cold chain logistics, and cost control. To win orders, suppliers need to build a mature origin cooperative supply system to solve the problems of unstable seasonal supply and inconsistent quality, and also help downstream clients control food waste.

3. Strategic takeaways: Suppliers can sign long-term cooperation agreements with chain hot pot brands in advance, diversify their vegetable cultivation to meet demand across different seasons, and explore digital cultivation and traceability systems. This allows suppliers to help downstream hot pot restaurants build a "fresh and healthy" marketing selling point while boosting their own core competitiveness.

The rise of the self-service vegetable trend in the hot pot industry has driven new industry changes and created new opportunities for all types of catering service providers. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Industry development trend: Self-service vegetables have evolved from a regional Guizhou specialty to a standard offering adopted by hot pot restaurants nationwide. A large number of small and medium-sized hot pot restaurants are following the trend, while mid-to-top-tier brands are upgrading related services, spawning many new service demands and creating considerable market space.

2. Core customer pain points: Small and medium-sized hot pot restaurants generally face pain points including unstable supply of wild vegetables and other produce, high procurement costs, difficulty controlling waste, insufficient space and labor for pre-processing, and lack of expertise in related marketing. For top chain brands, the core need is a mature and stable long-term origin supply system to support operations across their national store networks.

3. Opportunity for solutions: Supply chain service providers can build a cross-regional direct supply system for in-season vegetables to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a stable supply of diverse produce, and launch supporting waste control solutions. Marketing service providers can help hot pot restaurants design social-friendly campaigns such as wild vegetable blind boxes and health popularization content to match brands’ customer acquisition goals and improve operators’ overall performance.

The self-service vegetable boom in the hot pot industry has opened up new operational directions and growth opportunities for catering platforms. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Core merchant demands: Self-service vegetable brands that originated in Guizhou are expanding nationwide, generating strong demand for store expansion recruitment and traffic exposure. Small and medium-sized hot pot restaurants that follow the trend need operational guidance and supply chain matching support to lower the barrier to entry.

2. Recommended platform operations: Platforms can capitalize on the high search volume for "wild vegetable self-service" to build dedicated featured traffic campaigns that align with consumer search demand and boost platform user activity. Platforms can also add supply chain matching services to connect hot pot restaurants with vegetable suppliers, solve merchants’ supply pain points, and improve merchant retention on the platform. For brands looking to expand, platforms can launch dedicated recruitment sections to attract new brand entries and enrich the platform’s merchant diversity.

3. Risk mitigation: Platforms should proactively inform merchants that the dividend window for this model is narrowing, discourage blind entry, and guide merchants to organize their supply chains and calculate costs in advance. This reduces merchants’ operational risks and improves the overall merchant reputation and survival rate on the platform.

The rise of the self-service vegetable trend in the hot pot industry is a new industrial development amid the intensifying competition in China’s catering sector. Key takeaways for research are as follows:

1. New industrial trends: Competition in the hot pot sector has intensified in recent years, prompting operators to constantly add new product offerings to compete for customer traffic. Originating in Guizhou, the low-priced wild vegetable self-service model broke out of its regional base rapidly via social media sharing, evolving from a niche regional offering to a standard offering adopted by all mid-to-top-tier brands in less than two years. It has become a new customer acquisition business model for the catering industry, and is essentially a product of intensifying competition for customer traffic across the sector.

2. Emerging exposed problems: Rapid replication of the model has accelerated industry-wide competition, eroded differentiation dividends quickly, and eliminated the traffic-drawing effect once self-service vegetables become a standard offering. At the same time, small and medium-sized brands face high barriers from elevated supply chain costs and difficult waste control, leading to the elimination of a large number of late followers and accelerated industry consolidation. This trend also exposes the broader collective dilemma of catering brands being forced to add new offerings to compete for traffic amid widespread homogeneous competition.

3. Research value of the business model: This "low-price traffic hook + high-margin core product" customer acquisition model provides a new reference for customer acquisition across the catering industry, and verifies that the core of long-term competition in the catering sector ultimately lies in supply chain strength, cost control capability, and refined operational management.