T&T Supermarket, the largest Asian supermarket chain in Canada, will be opening a new store in the heart of Toronto in the Spring of 2025.
The grocery retailer said the location, steps away from Yonge and Dundas Square, is close to local landmarks such as Yonge and Dundas Square, the CF Toronto Eaton Centre, and Toronto Metropolitan University.
Following the success of its College & Spadina location, T&T said it recognized the need for another conveniently located store in the heart of downtown Toronto.
“We’ve seen such overwhelming demand at our College and Spadina location, we knew the city was ready for more. When deciding on the location of the new store, we knew a large portion of our delivery orders were going to the Yonge and Dundas area, so it was the natural choice,” said Tina Lee, CEO of T&T Supermarket.
“University students, with their busy schedules and often on their own for the first time, may not have the time or the knowhow to cook for themselves. In addition to ready-to-eat meals, fresh fruits and vegetables, and, of course, late-night study snacks, we’re happy to offer students in the area some familiar flavours from home.”
“Yonge and Dundas is the most iconic intersection in the whole country. So it’s very exciting to be there together and alongside some of the biggest brands in Canada and some of the biggest international brands that come to Canada. They want to be at that intersection as well,” said Lee.
“While that is an added benefit, I would say that the primary reason for us to be there is we know that is a very popular location for where a lot of our customers currently live, particularly the students at TMU. Not long ago we opened a store at College and Spadina and one of the cool services we have there is ordering online and delivering groceries to homes. So we could tell from our orders that a lot of those orders were going to the area of Yonge and Dundas. The condo market still continues to be alive and thriving with a lot of new condos going up including Panda Condos which is exactly the location that we’re locating in.
“We’ve been working on this location for quite some time and we feel confident that’s going to do well because we can tell a lot of our customers are going to College and Spadina today. They’re ordering from there and having it delivered to them. Not everybody in downtown Toronto has a car so it’s less convenient to get all the way up to our store in Markham or even across on the street car to College and Spadina. Primarily, we think that our customers are there and we want to be an even more convenient location for them to shop.”
Lee said the latest Toronto store will be the brand’s third in the country situated in the downtown core of a city. Along with College and Spadina there’s one in Vancouver in the Chinatown area.
She said the supermarket would love to be in more downtowns in the country.
“Here’s the thing about downtown locations. First, the floor plates, the size that we need, are very hard to find and the rent is expensive. We do have to be very selective and then the other thing in all three of the instances I talked about they’re in the bottom of a condo building and those are actually very difficult to construct for a complex operation like ours,” she said.
“You think about the seafood tanks and the kitchen and the ovens and the freezers and the coolers, it’s a lot of engineering to figure out. So the rent is expensive, the floor plates are hard to find, it’s a complex build and the density has to be there enough for us to make sure it’s a thriving store. It’s not a lot of opportunity for us. We have to be very selective about them. We’ve been working on this location I would say for three years, maybe over three years.”
Lee said that the company closed a store on Cherry Street in Toronto in January 2020.
“When we closed it people were really upset about it. It was really sad that we had to close a store – not because it was a poor-performing store but because the city needed the land back to redevelop one of their waterways. Ever since then we were actively looking at relocating even three years before then we were looking at relocating the Cherry Street location and find an alternate downtown Toronto site. We were working on both College and Spadina and this one at Panda Condos at Yonge and Dundas.”
The new location will be 31,000 square feet and part of the Panda Condos, a project by Lifetime Development. It’s on the site of the former World’s Biggest Bookstore site.
“We are excited and honoured to welcome T&T Supermarket to our site as their offerings will significantly contribute to the vibrancy and culture at Panda Condos,” said Alex Shallal, Commercial Leasing Director, Lifetime Development.
T&T Supermarket is the largest Asian supermarket chain in Canada, operating 33 stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. T&T Supermarket was founded in Vancouver in 1993 and is now led by second generation successor and CEO, Tina Lee. T&T Supermarket is headquartered in Richmond, BC, with offices in Toronto. It is under the Loblaw Group of Companies.
The company said the new store will cater to both residents in the area and students.
“The new location at 20 Edward Street comes on the heels of recent store announcements for T&T in Kanata, Ottawa, Brossard, Quebec, and Bellevue, Washington. After their Fairview Mall location, the new store will be the second T&T to feature a street food concept. In addition to the usual offerings, it will provide a selection of easy and convenient foods such as Chinese-style crepes, Taiwanese-style stuffed rice rolls and popcorn chicken,” said the company.
In mid-August, T&T announced a second Montreal store will open in Brossard, at the Quartier Dix30, in the fall of 2024.
Quartier Dix30 is the second-largest retail centre in Canada in terms of size, with 3,200,000 square feet of retail and office space, as well as a direct connection to the REM and thousands of residential units planned over the coming years.
“South Shore was one of the most requested locations from the community ever since we announced we’re coming to Quebec. After receiving such a warm welcome in Montreal last year, we’re looking forward to opening a second T&T Supermarket in Quebec. We looked at many development opportunities, and Brossard’s Quartier Dix30 proved to be the obvious choice – it’s a popular and ever-expanding mall, and we aim to be an integral part of the vibrant community that is growing around us. With numerous residential units planned in the coming years, we see immense potential in catering to the evolving needs of our customers, ensuring convenience and a delightful shopping experience,” said Lee.
