San Francisco shoppers are going bananas for a new Canadian grocery giant — and they’re willing to wait in line for hours to get inside.
T&T Supermarket, Canada’s wildly popular Asian grocery chain, made it’s long-awaited SF debut on Thursday, opening a sprawling, roughly 50-000-square-foot megastore on Geary Boulevard to massive crowds, celebratory lion dancers and a frenzy of food-loving fans.
The supermarket, which opened in the City Center complex inside a former Best Buy, is the chain’s fourth US location in just two years, marking another major milestone in its aggressive expansion south of the Canadian border.
Some eager customers reportedly starting lining up as early as 4 a.m. — hours before doors opened.
The opening transformed a massive space that up until now, sat empty since 2017, and transformed it into a busting food destination stocked with everything from live seafood and exotic produce to steaming dim sum, beauty products and more.
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The space was previously earmarked for Whole Foods, but the Amazon-owned grocer ultimately abandoned its plans after years of permitting headaches, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I’m excited to have a T&T Canadian-style store come open here in San Francisco,” one enthusiastic customer told KTVU while waiting in line. “They are famous for their wontons and their crepes, so it’s definitely a must-try.”
Another customer, Carissa Fei, was eager to explore the enormous selection. “I like going to grand openings, there’s a lot of great deals,” Fei told KTVU. “And T&T delivers a lot of fresh foods and all sorts of different things. Like, this one has a cafe even.”
Inside, shoppers can browse some 200 varieties of vegetables, 17 kinds of mushrooms and an impressive selection of fresh fish, seafood and meats.
Founded in Vancouver in 1993 by Taiwanese Canadian entrepreneurs Cindy and Jack Lee, T&T has become a fixture in some cities with large Asian communities.
