Shopping for a robot? China's new robot store in photos

A humanoid robots serves at a restaurant during a press tour at the Robot Mall in Beijing on August 6, 2025, ahead of the 2025 World Robot Conference that will be held from Aug 8 to 12. — AFP

BEIJING: A high-tech district in the Chinese capital is opening an all-service robot store on Friday to push a national drive to develop humanoid robots.

From plucking boxes off a pharmacy shelf to serving drinks from behind a bar, robots at the government-run facility showcase how far humanoid robot development has come – and how far it has to go.

The goal is to help robotics companies commercialise what has been largely a research-focused endeavour to date. China has produced eye-catching shows of two-legged robots dancing in sync, but can they be put to practical use?

A visitor examines a dinosaur robot at the Robot Mall, said to be the world's first humanoid intelligent robot 4S store, in Beijing, China, on Aug 6, 2025. — AP

"With the mass production of humanoid robots, we believe that both enterprises and customers will face pain points,” said Wang Yifan, the director of the Robot Mall in Beijing E-Town, about 40 minutes southeast of downtown by car.

Many of the companies have no experience in sales and marketing and there are few opportunities to display their products, he told a pack of journalists at a media preview this week.

The four-story facility is dubbed a 4S store, meaning sales, service, spare parts and surveys – or collecting and analysing customer feedback. It is the first such store in China, though other cities are building them too, Wang said.A visitor gestures to an opera robot on display at the Robot Mall, said to be the world's first humanoid intelligent robot 4S store, in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. — AP

Besides those performing tasks, the robots on display include ones that play soccer or Chinese chess, as well as historical figures from scientists Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton to Li Bai, considered one of China's greatest poets.

Robots, showing perhaps a humanlike tendency, are not infallible.

One was designed to recognise and separate trash from dishware returned by customers at a cafe. Its hand picked up a coffee cup and swung to one side but then held the blue-green mug in the air, not putting it down on a tray. A worker intervened to reset the software. – AP

A robot takes a food order during a press tour at the Robot Mall in Beijing on August 6, 2025, ahead of the 2025 World Robot Conference that will be held from Aug 8 to 12. — AFP