Montreal’s newest Asian supermarket shakes things up on South Shore

T&T CEO on meeting French language requirements T&T CEO Tina Lee talks about hiring a team of French-language translators before bringing the grocery chain to Quebec.

A new Asian supermarket opened its doors this week on Montreal’s South Shore.

It was a long-awaited moment despite the fact that the area already boasts several other similar stores.

“We really carry some unique products, and we give people a flavour of home,” T&T CEO Tina Lee tells CTV News. “We bring that nostalgic kind of feeling.”

T&T’s newest mart, at the Quartier Dix30 in Brossard on Montreal’s South Shore, is the second location in Quebec, comprising some 55,000 square feet of space for consumers to roam.

The first is in Saint-Laurent on the Island of Montreal.

“When we first announced that we were going to open in Montreal, people were so excited. It was like a tsunami of love,” Lee recalls.

Soon followed by: “What? Why is it not in Brossard? People were surprised that the first location was not in Brossard,” she said, adding that she took the feedback in stride and followed suit.

“That was a very good clue that Brossard had to be somewhere we needed to be,” she said. “Very shortly after we opened Saint-Laurent successfully, all the stars aligned.”

Bringing T&T to Quebec, a proudly French-speaking province, wasn’t without its challenges.

“The French language requirement, definitely, was very intimidating,” said Lee. “Since deciding, yes, we’re going to go into Montreal, we dedicated a full team of translators to make sure that everything was translated into French, that all of our signage could be in French, the packaging was in French.

Though she admits the translation efforts were a huge undertaking, Lee says her team gladly put in the work.

“I totally understand that in Quebec, maintaining and being able to operate your daily life in French is an important feature of preserving the culture,” she said. “We understand because we are also trying to advance our Asian culture and our Chinese culture.”

T&T, founded in Vancouver, BC, in 1993, was the brainchild of Tina’s mother, Cindy Lee, a Taiwanese immigrant.

She, along with her husband, Jack Lee, created the brand and named it after their daughters, Tina and Tiffany.

Lee contends that T&T is now the largest Asian supermarket chain in Canada, with stores in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

She ascribes the chain’s popularity to its small attention to detail: the way the shelves are stacked, the way the produce is featured and, of course, the cleanliness and pricing.

“People of all different backgrounds are in there,” she said. “That, to me, is really surprising and flattering, and really makes me so happy that we can contribute to the food scene in the way that we do.”