We’ve reported before on Canada’s legendary Asian Food supermarket chain, T&T. It’s nothing less than a phenomenon, that’s spread across the land from humble beginnings in Vancouver. And now, T&T is making it’s first foray into the US market…
General Manager Jimmy Won in front of Ottawa’s mammoth T&T Asian superstore!
This amazing oasis for Asian food lovers offers exotic produce and imported products that you can’t get anywhere else in most North American cities. Even in smaller Asian grocery stores…
Plays a big part
Over a decade ago, when I heard T&T was coming to my home town, I was thrilled. The timing was perfect. I was just entering the ‘Asian Period’ of my life-long culinary learning odyssey. Since then, Asian food has played a big part in my personal dining playbook. And with the growth of plant-based dining and a new awareness of plant based proteins in particular, traditional Asian recipes have come to the fore in my daily dining adventures.
Unmatched inventory
T&T is renowned for it’s Asian seafood selection, which features live fish and seafood, swimming right there at the front counter in huge tanks. You can get Asian veggies there that aren’t available any-where else in Eastern Ontario or Western Quebec. How about 5 types of Bok Choi?
And once, when I wanted to try making my own pulled noodles… I needed Alkaline Water to condition the dough. I was about to place an online ad. But then I thought, “I wonder?” And yes, T&T had it!
Proud but troubled
When I heard that T&T was heading south, to open it’s first US store, I was both proud and troubled. I was glad to see Canada’s Asian grocery powerhouse venturing ‘out into the great big world’. But I also immediately felt a qualm about the risk they’re taking.
Frontal assault
T&T is making an all-out frontal assault on the US Asian Food scene. They’re opening their first store there in San José, California, with two more ‘in the works’ in Washington State.
Their strategy makes sense: The West Coast is the traditional and historic seat of transplanted Asian culture in America. The principle extends north of the border to Vancouver, where T&T was born.
Notably… San José is the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley, where a lot of big money resides, and there’s a traditional taste for Asian Food. The latter is largely a result of the Valley’s location, im-mediately south of San Francisco. And San Francisco is the undisputed foundation stone of all things Asian in the US.
Method in their madness
San José is every bit as ‘Asian inspired’ as its Northerly neighbour. It even has an official Japantown neighbourhood smack in its middle.
Asian food lovers must (at least until the new T&T opens) travel 20 miles / 32 km to Freemont, or 50 miles / 80 km to San Francisco to access a full-featured Asian Food megastore.
T&T is betting on a sure thing in San José, if it hopes to tap into the millennial addiction to conven-ience and the well-known love of tech folks for Asian dining. Heck, a significant portion of the pop-ulation is made up of highly educated, tech-oriented professionals of Asian heritage.
My take
Given the obvious care with which T&T have researched their US expansion plan, and the proven markets they’ve targeted, I think I can put my qualms about their success to rest.
And even in the unlikely event T&T’s US experiment fails, I can comfort myself that my location will live on…
~ Maggie J.