Will the 59 Yuan/Person Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet Become the Next 'Beef Rib Buffet'?

Young People in Lower-Tier Cities Unlock 'Shrimp Paste Freedom': Buffet Focuses on Shrimp Paste Museum

Recently, when returning to his hometown, Neicanjun found that a small second-tier city in Hebei had opened several 'shrimp paste hot pot buffets.'

Compared to ordinary hot pot buffets, this place can be called a 'shrimp paste museum': from plain shrimp paste to fish roe shrimp paste, mushroom shrimp paste, squid shrimp paste, and even dragon fruit shrimp paste—there are more than a dozen varieties.

Besides shrimp paste, the store also offers chicken paste, beef paste, fish paste and other 'paste derivatives,' all uniformly placed in bamboo tube-shaped containers, arranged in several rows in the cold cabinet, quite spectacular.

In addition to shrimp paste, the store also has traditional hot pot items like beef, lamb, vegetables, and mushrooms. Desserts, drinks, and ice jelly commonly found in traditional hot pot buffets are also available. Some stores even add pizza and other staples.

Of course, most consumers in the store come for 'shrimp paste freedom.'

Chain Expansion Accelerates: Originating in Hebei, Expanding to Multiple Provinces

In fact, over the past year, a number of chain shrimp paste hot pot buffet brands have emerged, even successfully expanding outside Hebei Province.

For example, Shijiazhuang's Cijie Freshly Made Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet, founded last year, has already opened 66 stores, reaching Shandong, Jilin, Jiangsu and other places. Another brand from Hebei, Chengkebei Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet, founded around the same time, has opened nearly 40 stores in four provinces: Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, and Jilin.

Jianglaolao Shrimp Paste Seafood Hot Pot Buffet, which opened its first store in Zhejiang, now has stores in 12 provinces nationwide, opening 20 new stores this year alone. Laoxiaoxian Shrimp Paste Seafood Hot Pot Buffet, founded in 2018, has accelerated its expansion pace since last year, opening 40 new stores since 2025.

The category's popularity has even spread to South Korea. Recently, some netizens posted that South Korea also has shrimp paste hot pot buffets, with the 'bamboo tube + shrimp paste' setup identical to that in China.

Why Shrimp Paste? From Sales Growth, Premium Quality to Strengthened Supply Chain

There are several reasons for the rise of shrimp paste hot pot buffets.

On one hand, shrimp paste is increasingly widely used in the catering industry and has long been a classic hot pot staple.

Data from the Mashiying offline retail monitoring network shows that in 2025, shrimp paste category sales grew 56.9% year-on-year, with sales volume up 60.6%, ranking first in growth among quick-frozen food sub-categories.

In five provinces—Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou—shrimp paste even successfully overtook beef balls to become the TOP1 hot pot meatball category.

On the other hand, shrimp paste naturally has a premium quality, meeting consumers' expectations of 'getting their money's worth.'

Despite its popularity, the price of this 'frozen dark horse' is indeed high. For example, at Haidilao, a serving of its signature large-grain shrimp paste (about 140g) costs 74 yuan. Even in supermarkets, a pack of Anjoy shrimp paste costs about 16.5 yuan per 150g.

Correspondingly, eating a few servings of shrimp paste at a buffet hot pot can perfectly offset the 59 yuan ticket, and a few other items can achieve 'getting your money's worth,' making it quite enticing.

Most importantly, the upstream supply chain for shrimp paste is becoming increasingly strong, with production technology and output continuously increasing.

Take Daixiaji as an example. It focuses on the single category of shrimp paste and led the drafting of the 'Shrimp Paste' group standard and the 'Frozen Shrimp Paste' national standard in 2023 and 2024. It has now achieved monthly sales of over 100 million yuan and annual sales exceeding 1 billion yuan.

For the catering industry, especially the hot pot segment, the upstream supply chain is the core lifeline for brands to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and ensure quality. The rise of these shrimp paste supply chains has also brought a turning point for the emergence of shrimp paste hot pot buffets.

Will It Become the Next 'Beef Rib Buffet'? Key Lies in Differentiation and Repeat Purchase Conversion

Data from Chenzhi Big Data shows that over the past year, the number of shrimp paste buffet stores has rapidly grown from fewer than 10 to over 500, mainly distributed in lower-tier markets.

Creating differentiation with a single-product buffet model and rapidly opening stores inevitably reminds people of the similar 'beef rib buffet.'

The latter experienced rapid rise in the second half of 2024 and mass closures in early 2025, with some merchants losing over 2 million yuan in just three months.

Of course, unlike beef rib buffets that opened when beef prices fell and closed when prices rose, shrimp paste costs are relatively controllable, especially with the development of the upstream supply chain reinforcing the category.

However, it is worth noting that ingredient cost is only the 'last straw' for beef ribs.

Another major reason for the decline of beef rib buffets is that most stores simply rode the 'beef rib' trend without converting category heat into brand repurchase, eventually losing out in the homogenized market.

For these emerging shrimp paste hot pot buffet brands, challenges such as brand differentiation, product innovation, and store operation management still exist. Whether they can achieve long-term scale remains to be seen.