Canada’s 38-store grocery chain, T&T Supermarket, which opened its first U.S. store in Bellevue, Wash., in December 2024, is continuing its U.S. expansion — bringing its high-quality, fresh produce-forward concept to a broader audience, with a second Washington location and two California stores now underway. It’s an endeavor led by CEO Tina Lee, whose uncompromising dedication to offering healthy, culturally relevant foods to consumers is driving the grocer’s business forward at an impressive pace.
The Packer: Your mother, Cindy Lee, was the founding CEO of T&T Supermarket. How has her legacy influenced your professional path and role as the current CEO?
Lee: There are not many matriarch stories in produce — or in grocery retail for that matter — where the founder is a woman and then passes [the business] on to her daughter, so it is really special. She started the business in 1993 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and it came out of having difficulties at that time in shopping for the different needs of her household in one place. Really the only destination were the little shops in Chinatown.
T&T has come a long way since those early days, but part of its evolution can be attributed to the fact that she was a working mother herself and leading a business that was trying to solve for the pains of mom — to deliver healthy, authentic meals for the families that shop with us every day, and to do that guilt free — taking the work out of our customers’ kitchens and into our own, and to celebrate — not just healthy foods, but also culturally relevant foods.
Through food we find a way to get to know ourselves and to pass on our traditions to the next generation. So, I think she brought this feminine touch to the way we have evolved our business, and I’ve certainly tried to carry that on since she retired in 2014.
What is T&T’s and your philosophy as its leader around the produce department?
We would call ourselves a very produce-forward grocer. It’s our most important department that keeps our customers coming back every day, every week, so we put it right up at the front of our store experience.
As you come in, we smack you in the face with all of these amazing fruits and vegetables from all around the world, and it’s something that is really important for us. We have a very high dedication to quality and specs. At the same time, we offer produce at a price point that our customers would consider a great value for the money.
So, I think the way we approach, especially fruit — I mean fruit is almost an impulse purchase. Vegetables you’ve got to have, but fruit you can or cannot, and we want people to really dive into the fruit category.
I always say to my kids that fruit is Mother Nature’s candy. And if we took the approach of how CPG companies sell candy to the way we sell fruit, I think we would package it differently, sell it differently and cherish every bite. So, you will see that concept come to life in our stores.
Our produce buyers are rewarded for taking risks on the premium, extra-fancy, high-Brix, extra-large fruits and vegetables that we source from all around the world.
They’re rewarded for that because T&T has become a place not just for Asian families to find their Asian greens, but for people of all different cultures to find what they need. And a big part of that universal appeal of our stores is the produce department.
You recently opened your first U.S. store in Bellevue, Wash. What can you tell us about T&T coming to America?
It seemed like an easy decision, and also to go to the Greater Seattle area, because we knew that Americans and Washingtonians were shopping our stores every time there was a long weekend in the U.S. We see it with the license plates in our parking lots at our three stores in Richmond, British Columbia — a three-hour drive [from Seattle].
We wanted to meet our customers where they are, and so meeting demand with that simple value proposition was the easy choice. The hard part has been opening a business in a totally different country. The tax situation is different; importing, exporting is different. The supplier basis is totally different. Accounting systems are different. It was really like starting from zero in this new country.
But since opening on Dec. 5, I haven’t regretted it for one moment. It was very difficult, but the reward has completely outpaced the pain that we went through to get it done. And we’re being very warmly embraced; sales at the Bellevue store have totally exceeded our expectations.
I think our produce-forward strategy has been appreciated as well. It’s something that people really give us good feedback about. What’s also unique about T&T, and different from other grocers out there, is that we have very strong prepared foods and bakery in- store as well. That combination of being a place for Asian food discovery and high-quality fruits and vegetables from around the world is working really well for us.
We’re starting in Bellevue, but we’re not going to stop there. At the end of the year, we’re going to open a store in Lynnwood, Wash., north of Greater Seattle, and we just announced two additional stores in California — one in San Jose [slated to open at the end of 2025] and one in San Francisco [slated to open at the end of 2026]. I can already feel the love and the anticipation, and we’re excited to get rolling.
You’ve said that food is a way to experience culture and connect. What a meaningful sentiment.
Food is so important. It brings people together, whether it’s your immediate family, colleagues or people that you’re meeting for the first time. Food is something that’s so easy to connect over, enjoy together and share cultures and conversations over.
And in today’s environment, when pockets are tighter and people are eating more at home, we want to be there for them in that moment, to enjoy a great meal and have all the ingredients as well as some prepared foods that get them to the dinner table together.
Since becoming CEO in 2014, is there one accomplishment of which you’re most proud?
It’s hard to identify a home run, because we are where we are now because we took a lot of singles along the way. I feel like I’m living the dream now, which is amazing. We are on this growth trajectory where we’re able to reach and feed more Canadians and, pretty soon, Americans. And I feel so proud of the T&T team for getting the first store in the U.S. open. I joke that other than my wedding day and the birth of my children, the happiest day of my life is probably the opening of the store in Bellevue, Wash.
Read more about The Packer’s 2025 Women in Produce:
- Rebeckah Freeman Adcock — vice president of U.S. government relations, International Fresh Produce Association
- Erika Allen — founder and CEO, Urban Growers Collective
- Lori Bigras — communications manager, Ocean Mist Farms
- Kelly Hale — vice president of sales and marketing, Highline Mushrooms
- Angela Hernandez — Vice president of marketing, Trinity Fruit Co.
- Kristyn Lawson — president and CEO, Preferred Sales and Marketing
- Robin Narron — marketing director and sales support, Nash Produce
