This month, Asian groceries chain T&T Supermarket is celebrating their 29th anniversary with sales and promotional giveaways, including a weekly lucky draw where 29 winners will receive one whole year of free shipping from their online store.
Launched in 2020, T&T’s online groceries platform delivers Asian goods all over Canada, including same-day and next-day services available in select areas including the GTA.
The Story:
Cindy Lee and her husband, Jack, founded T&T Supermarket in 1993, pioneering the Asian Canadian shopping experience by blending goods from the East with the bright, spacious aisles of grocery stores in the West.
As the story goes, Lee was inspired to start her own business one day while grocery shopping in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Accompanied by three young children, she went from store to store to gather groceries for her family, and none had the bathrooms nor convenient parking that could help simplify her day-to-day errands.
The first-ever T&T store was opened in 1993 in Metropolis at Metrotown, a shopping centre in Burnaby, BC. This store was five times the size of an average Chinese supermarket at the time, and quickly grabbed the attention of Asian Canadian communities who longed for a taste of home.
By 1998, they had expanded quickly through the province and launched their now-loved section of restaurant-grade prepared foods, including dim sum and sushi. This became one of the earliest examples of the “home meal replacement” concept in Canadian grocery stores.
As of their 29th year in the business, there are now 29 T&T stores across 4 provinces in Canada, including British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, and—as of late 2022—Québec. This first store in the eastern province will be the biggest T&T in the country.
The Food:
In addition to a rich and diverse selection of house-prepared, ready-to-eat dishes, today’s T&T stores also boast their own line of products launched in 2012.
With an impressive 390 items currently on the roster, everything made by T&T’s private label is designed to help shoppers recreate an authentic Asian food experience at home.
To start, you can fully stock your kitchen with T&T’s own range of Asian staples, including all kinds of rice, noodles, dried broth ingredients, and must-have condiments like soy sauce, vinegars, and marinades.
While frozen dumplings need no introduction, T&T makes a whopping 9 different variations, including stuffings with pork, shrimp, chicken, beef, or veggies.
Another frozen favourite is their Shanghai Soup Pork Dumplings, or xiao long bao (小籠包). These soup-filled dumplings come with their own steaming papers so you can easily toss them onto a steamer and enjoy in minutes.
For snacks, the T&T brand carries household favourites like different kinds of jerky, roasted seaweed, and dry-roasted nuts, which are made oil-free by T&T in both salted and unsalted flavours.
Also on the shelves are some more innovative approaches to healthy snacking, like Salted Shiitake Mushroom Crisps and Okra Crisps.
An uncontested childhood favourite in many Asian Canadian homes, T&T’s Jasmine Green Tea continues to champion their list of beverages, with close seconds being the Aloe Vera Drink (available with 50% less sugar as well) and Organic Coconut Water.
If you need another reason to visit T&T, it’ll undoubtedly be for their dedicated hot pot aisles. Here, you can find an assortment of noodles, tofu, fish cakes, and their own halal and no-preservatives fish balls, which are made chewier and more flavourful with a higher amount of surimi (fish paste) than most other brands.
Alone or as flavour enhancers in your stir-fry, T&T’s Chinese sausages, dried pork belly, and Taiwanese sausages come in many varieties to suit your tastes and dietary preferences.
Finally, once you’ve gathered your ingredients, you can complete your homecooked Asian meal with T&T’s own line of essential kitchenware, such as bamboo steamer baskets, sushi mats, chopsticks, rice scoops, and more.
All through March, you can find T&T branded items at discounted prices, and for every order placed online this month, you’ll be automatically entered into their lucky draw with 29 winners every week receiving free shipping from their online store for one year.
You can find the giveaway details on their website and place your orders for delivery online or through the T&T app or visit a T&T near you to see all their in-store options.
