Hong Kong’s Convenience Store of the Future Has a Robot Behind the Counter
Present Day-Developments: Hong Kong has officially opened its first convenience stores operated by humanoid robots, and yes, thee future apparently includes buying snacks from a machine that can also chat with you.
Beijing-based robotics company Galbot launched three locations in the city at the beginning of September 2026: two outdoor stores in Hung Hom and Wan Chai, plus an indoor shop at Kai Tak. The rollout marks Galbot’s first retail expansion outside mainland China.
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The Robot Shop Has Arrived
Hong Kong’s Galbot stores turn a convenience-store run into a live robotics demo — snacks, touchscreens and humanoid shopkeepers included.
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The setup is straightforward enough for anyone who has used a self-checkout kiosk. Customers select what they want on a touchscreen, pay electronically, and then the wheeled humanoid robot retrieves the item and hands it over across the counter. The stores carry snacks, drinks and Hong Kong-themed souvenirs, including pineapple-bun and egg-tart merchandise.
The robots can also do more than silently pass over a bottle of tea. They are designed to greet customers and hold casual conversations in Cantonese and English, giving the shop a slightly surreal mix of neighborhood convenience store and technology showcase.
Galbot’s system is built around the company’s embodied-AI technology, with the robots using its AstraBrain foundation model to handle physical tasks inside the store. They can take orders, retrieve products and even work with a connected coffee machine, although the operation is not entirely human-free yet: staff are still needed for jobs such as replenishing stock.
The debut was not completely sci-fi smooth. Hong Kong’s first day of operations brought heavy rain and internet outages, and some customers discovered that the stores did not accept cash or Octopus cards. Payments instead included bank cards, WeChat Pay, Alipay and China UnionPay.
Still, the opening drew plenty of curiosity. One of the robots, nicknamed “Xiao Gai,” greeted passers-by in Cantonese and invited them to stop by, while visitors took photos and tested what it was like to shop from a humanoid clerk.
The Hong Kong launch is also more than a one-off demonstration. Galbot says it has already expanded to roughly 200 outlets across 50 cities in mainland China and plans to open around 10 additional stores in Hong Kong over the coming years, particularly in busy districts.
So is this thee end of the human convenience-store clerk? Not quite. But it is one of the clearest examples yet of humanoid robots moving out of controlled demos and into ordinary daily errands. The technology is no longer just walking across a stage or carrying a box at a trade show. It is handing somebody a snack.
Watch Hong Kong’s Humanoid Robot-Operated Convenience Stores in Action
South China Morning Post reporter Llewellyn Cheung visits Galbot’s new Hong Kong stores to test the fully automated shopping experience.
Source: South China Morning Post.
