Canada’s T&T Supermarkets announced Thursday that it has secured its first location in California, which will be its third in the U.S.
The Asian grocer, a subsidiary of Canadian supermarket giant Loblaw Cos., currently operates 33 stores across Canada. The planned 55,000-square-foot store at San Jose’s Westgate Center is scheduled to open next fall and will open in a space that previously housed a Walmart Neighborhood Market.
The location is across the street from a Sprouts and a Trader Joe’s, about a mile from a Nob Hill Foods store and a Grocery Outlet. It’s also less than four miles from local branches of two other major Asian grocery chains, H Mart and 99 Ranch.
“We want to create a destination,” said Tina Lee, CEO of T&T Supermarkets. “It’s a place of discovery, innovation and bringing people together through food.”
The new location will include a grill counter, noodle station, dim sum and street food section, hot food bar and freshly made Chinese crepe station. The store will also have an in-store bakery offering mochi puffs, egg cakes, Hong Kong-style pastries and custom cakes. Other offerings will include the chain’s signature private label products, including pineapple cakes, Taiwanese sausages, pork soup dumplings and scallion pancakes.
Based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, T&T Supermarkets is known for its wide range of authentic Asian products, as well as its prepared foods and service departments, which include a full-service meat counter and live seafood tanks.
Last year, T&T announced its planned expansion into the United States with a 7,000-square-foot flagship store in Bellevue, Washington, set to open in the coming months. In May of this year, the company unveiled plans for a second Washington location, in Lynwood, set to open next summer. That store will be 2,800 square feet.
Last November, T&T also announced that it had hired Chris Pine, former Executive VP of Anchors and Big Box Leasing at Brookfield Properties in the U.S., as head of real estate for T&T Supermarkets US to lead the chain’s expansion efforts in the U.S.
T&T was founded in 1993 by Tina Lee’s mother, Cindy Lee, who immigrated to Canada from Taiwan. The company was acquired by Loblaw in 2009.
Tina Lee, who was appointed CEO in 2014 when her mother retired, said T&T strives to create a unique, experience-driven environment.
“We want to evolve our grocery store beyond functionality,” she said. “We want to be the place where people want to go, not just have to go.”
