PHOTO GALLERY: T&T opens 15th store in Ontaro
T&T CEO Tina Lee and Loblaw president and CEO Per Bank were on hand at the ribbon-cutting for T&T’s 15th supermarket in Ontario, a 40,000 square-foot store at Mississauga’s Erin Mills Power Centre.
The store—T&T’s 39th in North America—marks the Asian grocery chain’s westernmost presence in the Greater Toronto Area, bringing the brand closer to customers in Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Hamilton. The location complements its Central Parkway supermarket near Square One in central Mississauga.
Customers started forming a line at 5 a.m., and by the time the doors opened at 9 a.m. on Thursday (April 9), hundreds were waiting.
This is the chain’s first ground-up store in partnership with Choice Properties, Canada’s largest REIT, majority-owned by George Weston, the parent company of Loblaw.
“We’d been looking for a location in Oakville for about seven years but could never find a spot big enough. Choice Properties said, ‘Why don’t we build something for you from the ground up?’” Lee tells Canadian Grocer in a one-on-one interview. (Erin Mills is on the border of Oakville.)
“This was all a parking lot before,” she points out. “The curb appeal of this store makes you feel like you’re about to get a warm hug. It’s warm, it’s grand.”
Before an audience of politicians, partners and grocery executives including Loblaw chair Galen Weston Jr., both Lee and Bank took to a stage set up inside the store for remarks. Bank marvelled at the interior, joking that only T&T could make a grocery store “look fantastic with a green floor,” and praised the store’s “beautiful” works of art.
Upper walls of the location are bordered by murals: oversized fruits and vegetables above the produce section, while playful scenes above the refrigerated aisles include a hockey player on a pond, a bird carrying a bag of groceries in its beak and a parachuting pastry.
The opening ceremonies also included a lion dance.
Bank also praised Lee and the T&T team.
“This is just the beginning,” he said of the brand, started by Lee’s parents, Cindy and Jack Lee, in B.C. in 1983. “We are growing strongly in Canada and the United States. In just two months, we will open our next store in California, our very first in the state.”
It’s a big milestone and a clear signal of the ambition that we all have for T&T,” he added.
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As part of the celebration, shoppers were treated to special promotions, including a $10 coupon for spending $88 or more (before tax) from April 9 to 12. The coupon is redeemable April 13 to 26 with a minimum spend of $88. (In Chinese culture, the number 8 is considered lucky, making $88 a symbol of good fortune.)
Each new T&T location also features a limited-time, location-exclusive item. At T&T Supermarket Erin Mills, it’s the Baby Bear Bao, a traditional Taiwanese bun made with a peanut crust and cilantro.
This year, T&T will also debut a 66,000-square-foot flagship in North York, its largest store yet, along with a new location in Burnaby, B.C.
The brand is also set to open its third and fourth locations in the U.S., in San Francisco followed by San Jose. It already has two stores in Washington—its first in Bellevue, which opened in late 2024, and a second in Lynnwood, which opened in November 2025.
“We have Washingtonians to thank,” Lee told Canadian Grocer about the U.S. expansion. “Our success in Washington gave us the confidence to open more stores and sign more locations in California.”
Click through the gallery below to see inside T&T Supermarket's Erin Mills store.
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Photo courtesy T&T Supermarket -
Photo courtesy T&T Supermarket -
Photo by Chris Daniels -
Photo by Chris Daniels -
Photo courtesy T&T Supermarket -
Photo courtesy T&T Supermarket -
Photo courtesy T&T Supermarket -
Photo by Chris Daniels
