Consumers buying snacks may want to bring their own scales after popular discount snack retailers Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd. (300972.SZ), operating the Haoxianglai banner, and BUSYMING (1768.HK), the parent of Zhaoyiming and Snack Busy, were caught in a wave of weighting disputes. This echoes the manipulative "sleight of hand" tricks once associated with wet markets, but now it's unfolding at well-known chain stores.

On September 7, BUSYMING (1768.HK) formally responded to the recent in-store weighting issues. The group's subsidiaries, Snack Busy and Zhaoyiming Snacks, announced the creation of a special compensation fund for advance payments. Starting from September 7, 2026, in cases of weighting errors, they will increase the compensation standard to ten times the price difference of the misweighed items, up from the industry-standard three times. Additionally, they are launching a nationwide store scale monitoring system, implementing daily calibration, weighing traceability, and enhanced training and audit procedures.

On the same day, Haoxianglai Snack Paradise issued a public apology to consumers, announcing that effective immediately, if misweighing or pricing errors occur and are verified, they will also compensate consumers ten times the price difference, an upgrade from the standard threefold compensation.

This practice of shortchanging customers by exploiting their trust is disgraceful. While both companies have issued apologies, the question remains: what is the true impact on these well-known snack enterprises, and will these lessons genuinely put an end to such problems?

According to Zhan Junhao, a well-known crisis PR expert and partner at Fuzhou Gongsunce PR, the tenfold compensation, daily scale checks, and data retention measures will have a clear deterrent effect in the short term. However, without complementary third-party inspections and real-time consumer oversight, the industry may gradually relax its guard once the immediate backlash fades, leading to a resurgence of similar issues.

As of the market close on September 10, Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd. (300972.SZ) shares settled at 185.54 yuan, up 0.53%, giving it a market capitalization of 36.6 billion yuan. Meanwhile, BUSYMING (1768.HK) closed at 365.6 Hong Kong dollars, down 3.08%, bringing its market cap to 79.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (approximately 68.1 billion yuan).

Measurement Disputes Erupt Across the Industry

Since August 2026, the discount snack retail sector has been engulfed in measurement-related controversies involving its two leading listed companies. Consumers across various regions have repeatedly exposed weighting discrepancies at Zhaoyiming, owned by BUSYMING, and Haoxianglai, owned by Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd., with related videos and complaints spreading rapidly on social media and becoming a nationwide consumer incident.

What exactly happened? According to a September 6 report from Guangming Daily, a customer in Hebei purchased 4 pieces of beef jerky and was charged 64.58 yuan at the store's scale settlement. Upon re-weighing, the cost was only 17.29 yuan. In another case in Henan, a customer's bill was 111 yuan; after requesting an on-site re-weigh, the price dropped to 64.8 yuan. These stark price differences have fueled public skepticism over the accuracy of the stores' weighing equipment and staff practices. A simple electronic scale has thrust two snack retail giants with tens of thousands of stores into the center of public scrutiny, exposing the franchising control challenges inherent in the industry's rapid expansion.

Zhan Junhao believes that the widespread occurrence of similar measurement problems across multiple stores is far from accidental staff errors. The root cause lies in brand owners, amid rapid expansion, transferring profit pressures down to terminal stores. Some franchisees, seeking to squeeze out profits under a low-price model, have deliberately tampered with the weighing process, creating a pervasive and unspoken industry practice.

Following the spread of the backlash, starting September 4, market regulatory authorities nationwide have launched special inspections of weighing practices in the discount snack retail sector. Baotou City's Market Supervision Bureau in Inner Mongolia has targeted major chain stores like Haoxianglai and Zhaoyiming in a city-wide special rectification, taking a firm stance against "shortchanging" behavior. Xinjiang County's Market Supervision Bureau in Yuncheng, Shanxi, has initiated special inspections of electronic pricing scales at Zhaoyiming and Haoxianglai outlets. Similarly, Funing County in Yancheng, Jiangsu, has conducted special rectifications, with inspection officers using standard weights to verify the calibration of electronic scales at local Haoxianglai and Zhaoyiming stores. The inspections found some outlets with improper scale management and incomplete measurement compliance labeling, prompting directives to rectify these issues.

From the current regulatory outcomes, the inspections and penalties so far have targeted individual franchised stores. As of September 9, regulators have not yet imposed administrative penalties on the two listed entities, BUSYMING and Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd..

Initially, both companies attributed the weighting deviations to incidental factors such as employee errors, checkout system glitches, or equipment malfunctions. However, the concentration of similar issues across multiple stores in different provinces has led the market and consumers to question the "simple grassroots accident" explanation.

Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangoal Institution, argues that the widespread occurrence of measurement discrepancies across many stores cannot be casually dismissed as mere operational mistakes. Under the industry's low-margin, high-volume model, the pressure on individual store profitability cascades down to the point of sale. Some stores naturally seek "hidden revenue opportunities" in the weighing process. The brand headquarters have long lacked rigid control over terminal measurement practices; routine inspections only check superficial processes, allowing opportunistic behavior in individual stores to gradually evolve into a regional and systemic issue.

A Turning Point: Public Apologies and Reform Promises

As the backlash intensified, on September 7, BUSYMING and Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd.'s Haoxianglai simultaneously issued public apologies and announced standardized rectification plans, marking a pivotal moment in the incident. Both companies pledged a tenfold price difference compensation mechanism. BUSYMING established a special fund for advance compensation, while Haoxianglai upgraded its compensation standard to tenfold the price difference, up from the industry's standard threefold.

The accompanying corrective measures are strikingly similar. They include equipping all stores with standard calibration weights, implementing a daily pre-opening scale calibration process, establishing a scale monitoring system, transmitting all bulk-weighing orders back to headquarters for archival and traceability, enhancing staff training on cashier operations, and increasing head office supervision and inspection efforts. These steps aim to close measurement loopholes across equipment, data, and personnel.

Nevertheless, the critical question remains: how will these rectification plans effectively reach and be enforced across tens of thousands of franchised stores? Jiang Han cautions that currently, regulators have only penalized the specific stores involved. There is a possibility that supervision could escalate and hold headquarters accountable if large-scale, systemic measurement violations are confirmed, proving that brand headquarters were aware of the loopholes and neglected their management duties. Given the public nature of listed entities, regulatory compliance standards are inherently higher for them than for smaller, ordinary market participants.

Structural Shortcomings of Franchise Expansion

Underlying this measurement controversy is the franchise expansion model that powered the rise of the discount snack retail industry. As of the end of June 2026, BUSYMING's Snack Busy and Zhaoyiming banners had a combined 26,405 operating stores. Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd.'s Haoxianglai system had 23,802 stores. Together, the two giants operate over 50,000 stores, adding nearly 10,000 net new stores in the first half of 2026 alone—a dizzying pace of scale expansion.

From a business model perspective, the core revenue of both listed companies comes primarily from supplying goods to franchisees, not from terminal retail profits. In this franchise framework, daily store operations, scale maintenance, and frontline employee management are largely the franchisees' responsibilities.

It's important to clarify that the franchise model itself does not directly cause measurement violations, but it presents structural management weaknesses. With over 20,000 scattered franchise outlets across counties and towns nationwide, it's practically impossible for the head offices to have real-time, comprehensive control over every store, every scale, and every checkout transaction. In the race to secure prime locations in previous years, the industry commonly prioritized store count as a key performance indicator, often leading to an overemphasis on expansion and neglect of refined terminal management. During this rapid expansion, the management oversight couldn't keep pace with store growth, indirectly amplifying minor operational lapses at the grassroots level and accumulating compliance risks. When equipment maintenance is neglected, staff operations are non-compliant, and franchisees lack compliance awareness, it easily culminates in weighing disputes that consumers can directly experience.

The capital market is watching this closely, and the persistent management uncertainties at the terminal level are creating potential valuation risks for the two listed companies. Investors are beginning to reassess the extent of compliance responsibility headquarters must assume under the vast franchise model.

Jiang Han argues that in a light-asset franchise system, the headquarters cannot wholly shift the compliance burden onto franchisees. They must establish unified, clear measurement operation standards rather than leaving management entirely to individual stores. They also bear responsibility for ensuring their systems and tools don't have exploitable vulnerabilities, with mandatory equipment verification processes managed centrally. Furthermore, daily oversight cannot solely focus on store revenue targets; routine spot-checks of terminal compliance must be institutionalized.

Jiang Han further analyzes that measures like the current tenfold compensation, daily calibration, and data retention at headquarters have a clear deterrent effect in the short term, but sustaining them long-term is difficult without the corresponding investment in personnel and integrating measurement compliance into core franchise renewal criteria. Once the heat of public opinion subsides, stores can easily revert to their previous lax state. A one-off, campaign-style rectification is unlikely to fundamentally prevent these problems from recurring.

Different Corporate Genes, Different Pressures at the Industry Inflection Point

Interestingly, despite being the duopoly in the discount snack retail sector, BUSYMING and Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd. have fundamentally different corporate origins and face distinct operating pressures at this industry juncture.

BUSYMING, formed by the merger of Zhaoyiming and Snack Busy, is a native leader in the discount snack retail track, having focused on snack chain operations since the industry's inception. Its entire business revolves around snack retail, giving it a longer history and deeper understanding of industry pain points and the franchisee ecosystem.

In contrast, Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd. started in edible fungus production and manufacturing, making a cross-industry entry into the discount snack retail sector. It secured its market position through the acquisition and integration of several regional snack brands and rapid franchise expansion. The snack business represents a significant diversification for the listed company, which now concurrently operates its original industrial segment alongside the new retail segment.

Both companies must confront their development blind spots to progress further. Jiang Han points out that BUSYMING, as a native leader, has long relied on rapid franchising to expand its territory. Its massive base of terminal stores stretches its management reach extremely thin, making the consistent standardization execution across its thousands of stores a significant challenge. Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd., having entered the snack business from another industry, may lack a perfect fit between its original retail operation genes and the frontline realities of discount snack retail. Its perception of on-the-ground store operations might be weaker, creating a risk where head office policies and actual store execution become completely disconnected.

A New Era of Compliance and Quality

Times have changed; the era of wild, untamed growth for discount snack retail has passed. After years of rapid expansion, quality physical retail locations are gradually becoming saturated. Intensified industry competition, coupled with tighter regulatory oversight, has markedly altered the profitability environment for franchisees. Declining average transaction values and increased competition are squeezing store profit margins, heightening the operational pressure on franchisees and further complicating compliance management at the terminal level.

For these two very different leading companies, this measurement controversy is more than just a consumer backlash over a few electronic scales; it's a stress test of their governance capabilities across a 10,000-store franchise system. The old industry logic was scale-first, using store expansion to gain supply chain bargaining power and market share. However, in this new phase of normalized, stringent regulation, the imperative challenge for BUSYMING and Fujian Wanchen Food Group Co.,Ltd. is balancing the speed of store expansion against terminal compliance control, addressing the management shortcomings of their franchise systems, and establishing a long-term, enforceable, traceable mechanism to restrain franchisees and uphold consumer fairness.

Jiang Han believes that following this incident, the capital market's valuation logic for discount snack retail chain companies will distinctly shift. Previously, the market emphasized scale metrics like store count and expansion speed. Now, long-term risk factors such as terminal compliance capabilities, refined operational management, and brand trust will be placed at the core of valuation analysis. Companies that merely pile up store count but fail to manage their terminals effectively will face significant valuation downgrades. The market will increasingly reward companies with robust compliance systems and stable per-store operating quality with higher valuation premiums.

Zhan Junhao stresses that with the industry's locations nearing saturation, regulatory tightening, and the current measurement backlash, the pace of franchise expansion in the discount snack sector will visibly slow down. Brand owners will shift their focus from "competing on store opening speed" to "emphasizing per-store compliance quality." The era of crude, expansive store openings has decisively ended.

The fast-growth dividend period for the discount snack retail track is over. For these retail giants with tens of thousands of stores, compliance and refined management, beyond mere scale, are the true foundation for long-term survival. Have you ever been shortchanged by inaccurate weighing when buying snacks? Feel free to share your experiences and join the discussion in the comments section below.