T&T Opens U.S. Grocery Flagship in Seattle With a Whole New Theory on Shopping

When the news dropped in June that T&T would be opening a massive U.S. flagship store in Seattle’s Bellevue mall, the Marketplace at Factoria, seemingly the entire city took notice. The massive, 76,000-square-foot space set inside a former Walmart opened on Thursday, December 5. It’s officially both the largest Asian grocer in Washington state, and, as T&T Supermarkets CEO Tina Lee told Eater Seattle, it is larger than all of the chain’s 36 Canadian stores.

The big reason to come in for the opening days, Lee says, are the deals. “How much would you pay for a bunch of green onions?” she asks, and answers her own question. “During opening week, you’ll be buying four for $1.” If that doesn’t make eyes pop, how about a bag of avocados for $2.88, Napa cabbage for 68 cents, and Envy apples for $1.68 per pound.

The store also has a private label collection of frozen, prepared, and other items that focuses on what Lee calls “Asian favorite products.” Some of the top sellers include steamed barbecue pork buns, green onion pancakes, frozen xiaolongbao that is sold with a thin strip of paper to steam it, and freeze-dried shiitake mushroom snacks that she suggests eating as a replacement for potato chips. Amid the ongoing contamination crisis in the U.S. food system, Lee says T&T has a leg up.

“What we’re known for in Canada is food safety,” Lee says, noting that T&T will continue to adhere to Canadian Food Inspection Agency guidelines, which dictate its manufacturing processes and those of its partner companies, and which she says are stricter than in the U.S. “We built a kitchen facility where we make the ‘secret sauce…’ We’ve [made] it so that you basically have an inspector on-site [from the CFIA] full-time. We built them an office to allow them to be there any time to inspect our processes so we can get products from all across the provinces in Canada, but it’s also at export level to support the store in Seattle.”

She notes that the company had to get plugged into FDA procedures to operate in the U.S., and will continue to quickly and loudly make food recalls when needed. “You actually hear T&T make recalls more openly than other Chinese grocers,” she says. “We’re a very transparent business, and I think that’s been part of our success, honestly.”

T&T

Lee also sings the praises of the hot food bar that she describes as an “Asian food buffet,” which features a whole, butterflied fried chicken. Workers in the store marinate and prepare the meat for what they call the Papa crispy chicken, which costs $15. She is also ready to crown the store’s barbecue pork, roast duck, and soy chicken as the city’s best. “We committed to using pork that is raised without antibiotics,” Lee says. “[For all of these foods,] we level up the raw ingredients and sell it for a price that is equal to or cheaper than what is out there.” T&T will also sell a kit to make Beijing duck, more commonly known and labeled in the store as Peking duck.

The idea behind making groceries more affordable and focusing on higher quality ingredients, Lee says, is to encourage customers to return for two- and three-time shopping trips during the week, rather than the American habit of doing one shop a week. As a point of reference, she talks about the sliced white bread the store makes in-house without preservatives as a tangible example of the company’s intention to clear the shelves every day in an effort to honor its commitment to preparing and selling fresh foods. “We don’t sell it on the second day,” Lee says adding that some may be packed into a morning discount tent. “It only has a five-day shelf-life. Why? It’s only 12 slices and we don’t want to add preservatives.”

“We are so good at the everyday fresh [foods],” she says. “I think there will be a bit of a social experiment on how the T&T model of an Asian fresh market lands and hopefully succeeds in Bellevue. If it works, it will give us the confidence to put out so many more stores.”