"For the next generation": T&T Supermarkets CEO on store's viral origin story

The CEO of T&T Supermarkets tells Daily Hive she’s overjoyed by how many Canadians love the story behind the name of her family’s grocery chain.

T&T refers to Tina and Tiffany, the eldest children of founder Cindy Lee and her husband, Jack Lee. The family-centric message captured the hearts of Canadians after it spread like wildfire on social media last year.

Tina, now grown and running the company as its CEO, believes positive reaction means the grocer is delivering on its mission to create moments of family connection and joy through food.

“It was, you know, an acronym for why are we doing this all to begin with,” Tina said. “It’s for the next generation to pass on our culture and our traditions and our food. The store that [my parents] were going to open, it’s for [their] daughters.”

Tina Lee with father Jack Lee (Submitted)

T&T also honours two of the company’s initial investors, Taiwanese company Tung-I and US-based Tawa, which helped the Lees with the capital required to open their first stores in Richmond and Burnaby in 1993. Those investors left the company in 2009, the same year T&T was acquired by Loblaw Companies Ltd.

T&T founder Cindy Lee pictured with her two daughters, Tiffany (left) and Tina (right). (Submitted)

Certain T&T stores rolled out posters in Spring 2023 featuring an image of Tina and her younger sister, Tiffany, with an explanation of the name’s meaning. TikToker @kue_c shared images from the store, saying she never knew the store’s meaning despite shopping there her whole life. From there, it went viral.

@kue_c Correction Tina & Tiffany #asiangirls #fyp #canadalife #asianlife #asiansupermarket #tandtsupermarket ♬ original sound – 🄸 🄰🄼 🅀🅄🄴🄴🄽🅂

Daily Hive has asked the TikToker for an interview but hasn’t heard back. The video has been viewed more than 600,000 times.

“I had no idea it would create such an interest,” Tina said, suggesting the widespread reaction suggests customers “understand what we’re trying to do, which is way more than just putting food on a shelf.”

Customers seemed to love the personal aspect of calling T&T Supermarket by the sisters’ names. Over Christmas, another TikTok video of a customer saying they picked up a turkey dinner from Tina & Tiffany’s was also widely shared.

@andreasfoodventures T&T’s #HolidayDinner features a turkey stuffed with #ChineseStickyRice, and I honestly can’t have turkey any other way now. Their #Christmas Premium Combo was massive and fed 7 people comfortably. You can also order their turkey separately for $98. Be sure to place your order a few days in advance— especially if you’re ordering a #turkey or holiday combo. #tntsupermarket #tinaandtiffany ♬ original sound – andrea charmaine

Tina remembers helping her parents out at the first T&T stores as a child. She and Tiffany would stand at the end of each checkout bagging groceries and handing out samples to customers.

“I remember holding this little basket where I had individually packed crackers. I was 13 or something, and people were so excited by these crackers they were like reaching into my basket, and I was like, ‘This is kind of scary,'” Tina said. “It was very character-building.”

T&T Supermarkets CEO Tina Lee with her brother Jason (Submitted)

Tina also has a brother, Jason Lee, who’s six years younger than her. When the first stores opened, she remembers he was too short to bag groceries along with his sisters. The family jokes that their next business endeavour will be named J&J — for father Jack and son Jason.

These days, Jason and Tiffany are both based in California. Tiffany works as a lawyer in Los Angeles and Jason works in finance in San Francisco.

Tina, meanwhile, travels between her home in Toronto and T&T’s headquarters in Metro Vancouver after taking over as CEO in 2014. The grocery chain is beloved by Canadians, often rustling up huge lines for new openings. One of Tina’s goals is for customers of all socioeconomic levels to shop every section of the store with dignity — meaning there should be affordable items for everyone along with imported or rare foods for special occasions.

One such item, Muscat grapes from Korea that retailed for $70, was also widely shared online after TikToker Derek Gerard filmed a taste test with them.

@thatlibraryshow HIS REACTION LOLL ☠️☠️ *Full Episode in Bio* #ThatLibraryShow #TasteTest #Interview ♬ original sound – That Library Show

As for Lee’s favourite in-store items, she’ll grab a two-item meal with barbecue pork and soy chicken.

“We’re obsessed with making sure the food on the hot food bar is as fresh as can be. You get real, big pieces of fish, boneless dark chicken meat,” she said. “The in-store prepared food experience is like no other grocery store.”

And in the groceries aisles, she loves the T&T private label frozen green onion pancake, the juicy pork dumplings (xiao long bao style), and her newest pick is the strawberry and chocolate-flavoured Portugues-style pasteis de nata from the bakery section.

With Christmas behind us, Lee’s stores are already getting ready for Chinese New Year, helping customers welcome the Year of the Dragon. With store openings on the docket for a suburb of Ottawa, a suburb of Montreal, downtown Toronto, and London, Ontario, Lee plans for this year to be one of growth and prosperity for T&T.

So for anyone online who thought T&T referred to the explosive (because the store is so bomb?), or, as one commenter suggested, Trinidad and Tobago, the meaning is actually much closer to the founding family’s hearts. Tina is happy she came back to lead her family’s business — the work is meaningful to her, and she believes it’s given her a better connection to herself.

“I’m a Canadian-born Chinese, but as you acculturate living in Canada, you might lose part of the Chinese side. So by being and working in T&T, you’re always learning about the food from your culture,” she said. “Part of my job is understanding what ‘good’ tastes like, and what those ingredients are. I felt like I was finding more of myself, and growing not just as a professional, but as an individual and filling out the ‘who I am’ part of my being.”