As of 6 November 2026, T&T Supermarket opened its first San Francisco store at 2675 Geary Boulevard, a 50,000-square-foot space on the third floor of the City Center mall that had stood empty for nearly a decade after Best Buy closed. It is the chain's second Bay Area store after San Jose opened in June, and its fourth in the United States. For brands and retail operators studying store expansion, the interesting part is not the opening itself but the arithmetic behind it: a Vancouver chain founded in 1993, with 37 stores in Canada and two in Washington State, is now converting vacant big-box space into grocery trade areas in dense urban markets.
A vacant Best Buy box becomes a grocery anchor
The site's history explains the opportunity. Best Buy closed there in 2017; Whole Foods signed a 20-year lease in 2019 and then spent years in permitting delays before terminating the lease in January 2025. T&T took the space over in March and opened within eight months, a pace the chief executive described as the fastest permitting process the company has experienced in the United States.
That timeline matters for expansion planning. A vacant box in an established centre already has parking, loading docks and traffic signals in place; the constraint is permits, not construction. Where a city can compress permitting, the effective cost per square foot of entering a dense market falls sharply.
Why the third floor works
Putting a 50,000-square-foot grocery on the third floor of a mall is unusual, and it only works when the destination is strong enough to pull customers up. T&T is betting that its assortment, including live seafood and a hot food bar, is that draw. For brands, this is a reminder that trade area quality is about pull, not about street frontage.
The assortment is the trade area strategy
The store carries 200 kinds of vegetables and 100 types of fruit, tanks of live lobster and crab, and a prepared food range that includes made-to-order rice rolls and a hot bar. It is also the first T&T in the United States with a cafe, serving speciality lattes and house-made baked goods.
| Store | Size | Role in the network |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose | 55,000 sq ft | First California store, opened June |
| San Francisco | 50,000 sq ft | Urban mall format with cafe |
| Newark | 72,600 sq ft | Largest in California, former Macy's |
Each format plays a different role. The San Jose store established the banner in the South Bay; San Francisco tests a vertical, mall-based layout with a cafe; Newark, at 72,600 square feet in a former Macy's, will be the largest in California and is scheduled for next winter. Millbrae follows in summer or autumn 2027 in a former Lucky Supermarket.
For suppliers, the sequence is a ready-made test plan. A brand that wants to know whether its range works in an urban, higher-rent format can watch San Francisco; one that wants volume can wait for Newark. Reading the expansion order is cheaper than running a pilot.
What high-potential store selection looks like
Three variables drive site selection here. The first is catchment depth within a drive-time ring, not walking distance, because the format depends on weekly stock-up trips. The second is the availability of large-format space at a workable rent, which in mature US cities increasingly means converted big-box units. The third is competition from other Asian grocers, which have expanded across the Bay Area in recent years.
Store potential also depends on the prepared food mix. A hot bar and cafe raise basket size and visit frequency, but they add labour, waste and equipment. The San Francisco store is the first in the US with a cafe, which makes it a live test of whether prepared food can carry a higher rent per square foot.
Data to watch after opening
Four numbers will tell whether the format works: sales per square foot against San Jose, the share of baskets that include prepared food, repeat visit frequency within the first quarter, and waste as a percentage of prepared food sales. Without those four, an opening crowd tells you very little.
There is also a cannibalisation question. San Francisco and San Jose sit in the same metropolitan region, and a member who once drove south may now shop locally. The chain's plan for four Bay Area stores assumes the market can absorb them; the first two quarters of overlap data will show whether that holds.
FAQ
Where exactly is the new T&T store?
At 2675 Geary Boulevard near Masonic Avenue, on the third floor of the City Center mall in San Francisco. It opened on 5 November 2026 and occupies 50,000 square feet.
How many stores does the chain operate?
T&T runs 37 stores in Canada and two in Washington State, plus four in the United States overall. The Bay Area will have four locations once Newark and Millbrae open.
Why does a converted big-box site matter for trade area analysis?
It already has parking, loading and traffic infrastructure, so the main constraint is permitting rather than construction, which lowers the cost of entering a dense market.
What should suppliers watch first?
Sales per square foot versus San Jose and the share of baskets including prepared food. Those two numbers show whether the cafe-led format can carry higher rent.
