Small Town Consumer Environment
Based on this article, the small-town消费 environment hasn’t changed much from a few years ago. It still prioritizes face and liveliness over orderliness and queuing, and prices are indeed significantly lower than in tier-1 cities. If you want to experience the消费 vibe of county-level or下沉 cities, check out Mixue Ice Cream & Tea at night. (What’s missing is a certain人文情怀—most shops in small towns offer private booths for noisy gatherings.)
Also, as the accompanying images show, small towns are gradually aligning with large cities in both development and消费 patterns.
Separately, I rarely share recommendations for domestic articles for two reasons: first, I accumulate many but can’t keep up with reading them, so they pile up; second, most of them exude a upper-class superiority, condescendingly judging others—a tone I personally dislike.