This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on October 11, 2022.
BA Capital reported on Helens' first county-level “Helens Yue food-stall” store, opened on May 19 in Lichuan, a county-level city in Enshi Prefecture, Hubei. The store was both Helens' most deeply penetrated lower-tier-market location at the time and its first test of a Chinese night-market-style food-stall model.
Before May 18, 2022, Lichuan was mainly tied to Helens through founder Xu Bingzhong, whose hometown it is. The Lichuan store changed that narrative by becoming a test site for whether Helens could move from small taverns in university and urban districts into county-level night consumption.
Store performance was strong in the early months:
Lichuan became a county-level city in 1986. It is now the largest county-level city by area and population in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. In 2021, Lichuan's GDP reached RMB 23.17 billion, with per-capita GDP of RMB 30,871 based on permanent resident population. Its economy sits in the middle tier of China's county-level markets, but its industry mix is notable: in 2021, the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors accounted for 19.91%, 16.08%, and 64.01% respectively.
The city is roughly five hours by high-speed train from Wuhan. Located in the Wuling Mountains of southwest Hubei, Lichuan has an average summer temperature of 22 degrees Celsius and was named a “cool city of China” by the Chinese Meteorological Society in 2018.
Tourism is important to Lichuan. In 2019, the Lichuan municipal government signed a RMB 5 billion strategic cooperation framework agreement with Enshi Tourism Group. In 2021, Lichuan received 14.18 million tourist visits, up 1.5 times year on year, and generated RMB 7.26 billion in total tourism revenue, up 2.1 times year on year.
BA Capital argued, however, that tourism itself was not the direct reason Helens selected Lichuan. The choice was based on three operating tests.
First, tourism had helped raise income, and Lichuan was a net-inflow county-level market. At the end of 2021, urban permanent residents' per-capita disposable income was RMB 34,200, compared with RMB 26,700 five years earlier. Lichuan's permanent resident population was 714,400 in 2021, up from 669,000 in 2017.
For a single-store model, population size and penetration rate determine the target customer base. BA Capital's fieldwork found that even in the summer tourism season, most customers at the Helens Lichuan store were locals, making the market a useful sample for understanding county-level consumers.
Second, Lichuan already had a strong night-economy base. The Helens Yue food-stall format fits three traditional attributes of Chinese “dapaidang”: opening at night, selling snacks such as seafood and barbecue, and offering value pricing. Lichuan's cool climate supports night consumption, and local food stalls are already a defining feature.
Near the Lichuan Longchuan Tianjie location, BA Capital counted almost 30 mobile late-night snack vendors and nearly 20 fixed food-stall units. In the older Fukaichang tobacco-yard area, roughly 70 food stalls had turned the site into a late-night dining destination. BA Capital reported that Helens' table occupancy was much higher than comparable local venues.
Third, Lichuan's economy and population sit in the middle tier of county-level markets. BA Capital viewed counties with GDP between RMB 10 billion and RMB 100 billion as more representative test markets than the strongest or weakest counties, because China's county-level markets vary widely in population density, disposable income, and commercial infrastructure.
Helens Yue food-stall in Lichuan was positioned as more visually immersive than previous Helens stores. Xu Bingzhong summarized the model as combining top-tier environment, floor-level pricing, solid service quality, and a distinctive atmosphere to create an immersive experience.
For context, Helens' best directly operated single-store daily sales in 2021 came from third-tier and lower cities, averaging RMB 12,000 per day. In the first half of 2022, those markets again performed best, averaging RMB 8,000 per day. Lichuan's average of RMB 10,000-20,000 over its first four months, with a peak of RMB 40,000, would have placed it among the company's stronger stores even before the pandemic. BA Capital also reported that in the autumn and winter off-season, the Lichuan store could break even or make a profit.
Xu framed the challenge as different from a standard urban chain rollout: in county-level food-stall businesses, owner-operated local venues can have an advantage in relationship-driven markets. His view was that a company must offer a meaningfully upgraded experience to compete.
Key operating changes included:
The new “Helens Yue” model required higher single-store investment than urban stores because of upgraded decor and additional equipment. BA Capital said the three major rigid costs were rent, labor, and raw materials. For county-level stores, Helens used cooperative franchising to better integrate local resources and reduce rent costs.
On labor, ordinary employees at the Lichuan store earned RMB 3,550 per month, well above the local average wage of RMB 2,000. Helens also provided meals, accommodation, and performance bonuses. Even so, labor cost remained below that of higher-tier cities. Once operations stabilized, staffing could stay under 20 people.
At the same time, customer spend in Lichuan was almost on par with first-tier cities, at around RMB 100 per person.
BA Capital asked how many county-level markets could support the Helens Yue model.
By regional county-level GDP, Jiangsu led with RMB 4.3 trillion. Henan, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Hunan were also in the top five. Debon Securities data cited by BA Capital showed that county-level GDP accounts for a larger share of provincial GDP in central and western provinces. Provinces around Hubei were above the national average of 38.5%, partly because central and western provinces have fewer highly developed large cities.
BA Capital said Helens had already planned to open Helens Yue food-stall stores in 20 similar county-level markets across Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, and other provinces.
China's county-level market includes 388 county-level cities, 1,312 counties, and 117 autonomous counties. Their main urban areas and surrounding towns, excluding villages, are treated here as “county-level markets.” According to a Development Research Center of the State Council think-tank source, total retail sales of consumer goods in county-level markets were about RMB 18.4 trillion in 2019, accounting for 45.1% of China's total.
As of the end of 2020, the urban permanent resident population of county-level cities and county seats was about 250 million: 160 million in county seats and 90 million in county-level cities. County-level cities generally had twice the average population of counties.
The China City Statistical Yearbook showed that in 2020, China's 386 county-level cities generated RMB 16.57 trillion in GDP, accounting for 16.35% of national GDP. On average, county-level cities had an economic scale of about RMB 43 billion, while county seats averaged about RMB 15 billion.
BA Capital's fieldwork in Lichuan suggested that most local night-consumption venues were food-stall-like restaurants with little designed atmosphere. A smaller group consisted of higher-spend nightclubs or atmosphere bars focused on drinking. The firm argued that county-level consumers need more multi-scenario venues.
The Lichuan store showed three consumer patterns:
On that basis, BA Capital argued that a model combining designed setting, atmosphere, attentive service, and a broad product mix matched the consumption-upgrade trend among county-level residents, especially because Helens Yue did not raise prices. The article stated that Helens had a pricing advantage across Lichuan.
In BA Capital's August report, “The New Foundation of Consumption Power: Research on Consumption Demand Trends Among Young and Middle-Aged Consumers in County-Level Markets,” 75% of county-level consumers said they were interested when asked whether they would be interested in a newly opened place for leisure, play, or social gatherings in their city.
At the same time, social-space supply remained limited. After half a year of consumer research, BA Capital found that internet use, TV viewing, gatherings, and shopping remained the main entertainment and leisure activities for young and middle-aged consumers in county-level markets.
The article closed by comparing Helens' county-level expansion with the company's earlier role in student memories. In early 2016, when the Helens Wuhan East Lake store closed because its lease expired, a Wuhan University journalism graduate returned to film its final day of trading in the documentary “Donghu Farewell.” Customers in the film described the store as part of their youth.
BA Capital framed the Lichuan experiment similarly: the earlier store preserved student memories, while the county-level food-stall format aimed to create family memories in a different life stage and location. Both were built around nighttime social occasions inside Helens.
Note: Forward-looking store-opening plans and performance figures are historical as of the article's October 11, 2022 publication date.