China sets a 60 trillion yuan retail target as restaurant chains close outlets

China's plan to boost consumption assumes retail sales of consumer goods will reach about 60 trillion yuan by 2030. The starting point is concrete. Retail sales already passed 50 trillion yuan in 2025. Passenger car sales came to 23,744,000 units, and home appliances and telecom devices each topped one trillion yuan in retail sales, 第一财经 reports. The document lists 20 specific measures and names the trillion-yuan categories and the "ten-billion-yuan" markets: green, smart and health-related consumption.

The hardware data is the most interesting part for anyone watching kitchens. Figures from a major e-commerce platform for July 2026 show sales of intelligent embodied robots up 95.1 percent, exoskeletons up 39.5 percent, action cameras up 24.7 percent and robot vacuum cleaners up 19.4 percent. Home robots nearly doubled in a single month, the clearest sign yet that home automation has stopped being a trade-fair curiosity.

Restaurants: expansion is over

Food service looks entirely different. A roundup by 界面新闻 in its 消费 section brings a run of headlines about retreating chains. The restaurant 西贝 is "on the edge", closing outlets and delaying payments. 美团 co-founder 王慧文 has publicly said he wants to buy the chain, praising its hygiene and taste. Shares in the 九毛九 group are falling sharply. The brand 很久以前羊肉串, with 148 outlets and an average bill of 88 yuan per person, is preparing to list as the "first barbecue company". The "healthy fast food" segment is growing instead. On 24 September 2026, Hangzhou got the 600th outlet of the KPRO chain, which that day published a "balanced" seven-day meal plan developed with the Shanghai Nutrition Society.

Shops and holidays

The 零售 section of the same outlet describes a shift in the holiday basket. Mooncakes with low sugar, a low glycaemic index and whole grains are selling, including versions for pets; members of the 山姆 chain resell those from its range at a markup of nearly 100 yuan. At the same time the classic, fatty and expensive products are being cleared at discounts. The brand 美心 cut prices by as much as 60 percent, and hotel mooncakes from five-star properties turned up on resale platforms at about 30 percent of the list price. The market is heading for a second consecutive year of decline. A third observation concerns bulk snack shops: the chains 赵一鸣零食 and 好想来 were caught in 2026 for irregularities in weighing goods, an error the consumer sees immediately on the receipt.

Three numbers, one thesis

Four numbers show the direction of China's food market: 50 trillion yuan in retail sales already achieved and 60 trillion as the 2030 target, a 95.1 percent rise in embodied robot sales in a single month, and a second year of decline in the mooncake market. The first two speak to the scale of automation and to consumption being treated as a flywheel of the economy. The third and fourth show that in food service and retail what counts today is not expansion but keeping the customer: a cheaper product, a stable taste and a receipt without surprises.