<p><a href=”https://www.tntsupermarket.us/eng/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Canada’s largest Asian grocery store</a> chain is expanding to Southern California, opening its first supermarket in Irvine’s Great Park Neighborhoods next year while establishing its first U.S. regional headquarters in Brea where it will oversee even more store openings.</p><p>Tina Lee, chief executive of <a href=”https://www.tntsupermarket.com/eng/”>T&T Supermarket Inc.</a>, said the Irvine store will anchor The Canopy, a 12-acre retail project by the same group that built River Street Marketplace in San Juan Capistrano.</p><p>The 35,000-square foot grocery store is expected to open in the fall of 2026. The Canopy will be just off Great Park Boulevard between Terrapin and Beacon roads.</p><p>The Canopy will be the first neighborhood retail center for Great Park homes. Today, residents are primarily served by a Ralphs and Trader Joe’s along Sand Canyon Avenue, about 2 miles away. A Pavilions along Portola Parkway is nearly 6 miles away.</p><p>”The market is needed for this neighborhood,” said State Sen. Steven Choi, who represents the 37th Senate District where The Canopy will be.</p><p>
</p><h4>T&T moves south</h4><p>The Brea headquarters is only the second one for the Vancouver-based chain, which has another in Toronto. Lee said the Brea division, which recently leased offices at 975 Imperial Blvd., already is staffed with a dozen employees.</p><p>”A lot of the strategic decisions are still being made out of Vancouver … but we will execute locally here, like for locally sourced food, and connecting with our vendors and suppliers,” she said.</p><p>T&T’s plan is to open more stores in the region, though Lee declined to say where. She also said the Trump administration’s tariff war with Canada didn’t alter her U.S. expansion plan.</p><p>The U.S. imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian automobiles, lumber, aluminum and steel, among other commodities. A universal 10% tariff on Canada has so far not been applied, unlike other countries that were hit with the tax.</p><p>T&T opened its first U.S. store in December in Bellevue, Wash. The massive store — at 76,000 square feet — saw lines form around the building for days when it debuted.</p><p>
</p><p>Shoppers in <a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfzOuh7ZiJ0″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>video posts on YouTube</a> marveled at the sprawling store and its vast array of exotic produce, meat, live seafood, baked goods, pantry items and household gadgets.</p><p>T&T is building another store about 10 miles east of Seattle in the suburb of Lynnwood. Next will be its first store in California, <a href=”https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/08/15/san-jose-asian-grocery-store-retail-property-real-estate-build-jobs/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>expected to open in the fall in San Jose</a>, followed by <a href=”https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tt-supermarket-expands-to-san-francisco-302414506.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>another in downtown San Francisco</a>.</p><p>The chain has spent more than $100 million on just those five stores, Lee said. “It’s significant.”</p><p>The expansion into the U.S. began after company executives noticed shoppers with license plates from Washington were traveling three to five hours across the U.S.-Canada border to buy groceries at T&T. This is why Lee leapfrogged to California — where she has deep roots and figured there would be similar interest.</p><p></p><p>”I’m banking on the fact that Californians are culturally somewhat similar to Washingtonians. That’s the bet that I suppose I’m making,” she said. “The (Great) Park brings millions of visitors every year into this area. This is not a cookie-cutter store we’re planning. That’s the reason why we chose this park.”</p><p>While the Northwest might be familiar with the T&T name, Lee is aware that in Irvine, “nobody knows T&T.”</p><p>”I don’t think that we are out of the woods in terms of having to earn our spot on the kitchen table,” she said Thursday.</p><p>T&T supermarkets, which has 38 stores in Canada, was founded in 1993 and is led by Lee, a second-generation successor. She took over the CEO role in 2014 from her Taiwanese-Canadian mother, Cindy Lee who founded the company along with her husband, Jack.</p><p>The company name is a reference to the Lees’ eldest daughters, 44-year-old Tina Lee and 42-year-old Tiffany, who sits on the board of directors of T&T and lives in Playa del Rey. Tiffany also is the company lawyer for Liquid Death, a canned water brand known for its edgy marketing.</p><p>Tina Lee, who speaks fluent Mandarin, has strong connections with Los Angeles, having graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from UCLA. After graduation, she “cut her teeth” with Deloitte, a “Big Four” accounting firm in Los Angeles, where she worked on strategy and operations consulting.</p><p>”After that, I decided to go back to help my mother,” she said. In 2009, T&T Supermarket was acquired by Loblaw Companies Ltd., keeping the Lee management in place while helping finance the chain’s expansion.</p><h4>First-class</h4><p>San Juan Capistrano developer Dan Almquist said he began courting T&T two years ago, making eight visits to Vancouver to see its stores and get a feel for the 8,000-employee chain’s culture.</p><p>He said that he was impressed with T&T store features that include a vast array of produce, meat, Hong Kong-style Chinese barbecue, seafood in fish tanks, baked goods, egg tarts, dim sum and sushi counters, kitchenware, gifts and specialty items from various Asian cuisines.</p><p>”It is a first class offering,” Almquist said. “The cleanliness and presentation is very well done.”</p><p><a href=”https://www.ocregister.com/2024/12/06/a-decade-in-the-making-san-juan-capistranos-river-street-marketplace-welcomes-patrons/”>Late last year</a>, Almquist’s $70 million River Street Marketplace was opened with 30 stores in a 60,000-square-foot outdoor shopping center in San Juan Capistrano. The new hub has a mix of retail, restaurants, a meat market and a food hall, as well as other offerings such as a pilates studio, flower shop, farm-style community tables and a grassy gathering place for visitors on nearly 6 acres that were once a large nursery.</p><h4>Crowded marketplace</h4><p>T&T is joining a large pool of Asian grocers already well established in California.</p><p>Buena Park grocery chain <a href=”https://www.99ranch.com/”>99 Ranch Market</a>, which specializes in Asian pantry goods, produce, fish meat, and bakery goods, <a href=”https://www.ocregister.com/2025/04/21/status-update-jcpenney-to-be-bulldozed-in-orange-99-ranch-opens-in-aliso-viejo/”>opened its newest store</a> earlier this month at <a href=”https://avcity.org/399/The-Commons”>The Commons in Aliso Viejo</a>. The 63-store chain dominates the Asian grocery scene in California, with five stores in Orange County (Irvine, Anaheim, Buena Park, Tustin and Aliso Viejo). About two dozen of the state’s 44 stores are in Southern California.</p><p>The remaining 19 stores are in Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.</p><p>Another Asian store expanding in the region is <a href=”https://baystreetemeryville.com/portfolio/tokyo-central-market/”>Tokyo Central</a>, which is owned by Japan-based Marukai Corp. Suzie Won-Speizer, a spokeswoman with the chain, said the grocer is opening a store at 14120 Culver Drive in Irvine this summer. In December, when Tokyo Central opened a store in Torrance, the chain had 11 locations in the U.S., mainly in California and one in Hawaii. </p><p>Won-Speizer said grocery store wars and mergers among traditional chains created vacancies filled by Tokyo Central, <a href=”https://www.seafoodcity.com/”>Seafood City Supermarket</a>, a Pomona-based Filipino food chain, and the Korean grocery stores <a href=”https://www.hmart.com/”>HMart</a> (17 locations) and <a href=”https://megamart-usa.com/”>Mega Mart. </a></p><p>”While big box stores compete for market share, the American palate is increasingly drawn to other cuisines,” she said. “Asian grocery stores offer dietary options and fresh, quality products that are budget-friendly.”</p><p>One analyst isn’t sure about T&T’s place in such a crowded market.</p><p>”The questions are: ‘Where are they going to be?’ and ‘What are they going to do to differentiate themselves?'” said Craig Rosenblum, a <a href=”https://www.ocregister.com/2024/09/12/who-is-cs-wholesale-potential-buyer-of-63-albertsons-stores-in-california/”>retail analyst</a> and principal with Columbus Consulting.</p><p>”Are they supporting an Asian market that’s unsupported today in Southern California? Coming to the market right now is a really a crowded spot. Unless you have a unique value equation to gain, and garner your share of wallet in the marketplace today, value is a tough place to be.”</p><p> </p><p></p>