Finally! Subway Convenience Stores Have Arrived at Three Stations

If you are like me, you probably can't wait for subway masking to be over just so you can once again snack on a granola bar on your morning commute. Now, for many commuters, grabbing a snack or other daily necessities just got a lot easier as the long-awaited subway convenience stores have finally opened to the public! 

All three stores are currently in soft opening, with locations inside Qingnian Lu Station on Line 6, Caishikou Station on Line 7, and Hepingli Beijie Station on Line 5. To get a better look, we went to the Hepingli Beijing branch to find out for ourselves.

This one happens to be a Lawson's. The store is open from 6.30am to 10pm – about the same operating hours of a subway station. About a third of the store is dedicated to fresh food products such as pudding and even frozen chicken, another third to bento boxes for some quick bites for those in too much of a rush to cook breakfast, and a third to beverages.

The convenience store is fairly small – around just 10 square meters – but the inclusion of belly-fillers like bento sets served with some Japanese rice balls add some pleasant surprise. These rice balls are called onigiris, usually wrapped in seaweed, with a layer of stuffing of salmon or tuna wrapped by the sticky rice.

There's no doubt that these convenience stores are making a few Beijingers' lives easier, and they're a far step up from the paltry vending machines we were left with before. Best of all, hungry customers are allowed to remove their masks to eat in the store – though of course, eating is not allowed after stepping foot outside of the store's bounds. The Hepingli Beijie store is too small for any tables, unfortunately, but you may be able to plop down for a bite at Qingnian Lu.

Another handy feature at the Hepingli Beijie store is the pre-order function that riders can use if they plan on hopping off at the station for a quick breakfast, allowing customers to grab and go as fast as possible.

All three subway convenience stores drew quite a large crowd on the first day of their opening. Previously, transit authorities said that more stations would be equipped with the store if these pilots are "successful" – we're not quite sure what their metric for success is, but if it's based on customer popularity, then you can expect to see one of these stores coming to a station near you sooner rather than later.

    READ: Talking Transit: Convenience Stores and Shorter Lines Coming to a Subway Station Near You

Images: Irene Li, Weibo