Galbot opens Hong Kong's first robot-run retail stores

The outlets open from September 1 at three Hong Kong locations: the Hung Hom harbourfront, the Wan Chai harbourfront and Kai Tak Sports Park. They are described as the city's first retail stores run fully autonomously by humanoid robots.

Each store is overseen by a humanoid robot store manager called Xiao Gai. Customers can place orders in Cantonese, Mandarin or English, after which the robot takes the request, turns to select and retrieve the item and hands it over. Payment is completed by QR code or card.

Galbot says the whole service sequence runs without a back-end operator remotely steering the robot. The initial three shops follow a "cultural crossover" theme, stocking cultural and creative products from both Hong Kong and mainland China.

Founder and chief technology officer Wang He said Hong Kong was picked as the company's first market beyond the mainland for reasons beyond commercial potential. He cited the city's openness to emerging technologies, its multilingual and multicultural environment and its international character as qualities that make it a useful real-world setting for embodied intelligence.

The launch extends Galbot's activity from earlier settings into everyday urban retail, placing autonomous robotic service directly on city streets and harbourfronts.