Food & Drink
Canada’s T&T Supermarket to Open First U.S. Location in Bellevue
It will become the largest Asian supermarket in the state
By Rob Smith June 8, 2023
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Seattle magazine.
The largest Asian supermarket chain in Canada will open in Bellevue next year.
T&T Supermarket, which just celebrated 30 years in business, operates 33 locations across Canada. Company executives say they chose the Seattle area for their first U.S. store because of the region’s robust foodie culture. When it opens in summer 2024 in the Marketplace at Factoria, the 76,000-square-foot store will become the largest Asian supermarket in the state.
“It’s not unusual to see U.S. license plates in the parking lots of our British Columbia stores,” says CEO Tina Lee, “with hundreds of customers regularly making the drive for our food.”
The new location will feature T&T staples including a sushi counter, hot food bar, noodle station and in-store kitchen and bakery. The store will carry more than 300 of the brand’s private-label products such as green onion pancakes, pork dumplings and seaweed snacks.
“Honestly, one of the things I miss the most from home was T&T,” says Charles Chang, who moved to Seattle from Toronto a decade ago. “We just don’t have anything like it here.”
The new store will create 300 jobs, and the company will hold a job fair this summer. More information can be found here or at 1-833-562-7315.
T&T, which is headquartered in Richmond, B.C., will also open a regional office in the Los Angeles area as it eyes U.S. expansion.
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