Loblaw Companies Limited is no stranger to a diverse range of grocery store banners, with well-known names including Loblaws, Zehrs, Fortinos, Real Canadian Superstore, Valu-mart, No frills, and Maxi. Still, it came as a shock last September when
the company bought T&T Supermarket, one of Canada’s biggest Asian supermarket chains.
Sandra Creighton, public affairs manager for T&T Supermarket, sums up internal reaction with just three words: “We got married.” And like any marriage, the union has involved bringing together two different sets of in-laws, two different ways of doing things, and two very different ways of talking.
Read Also
Riding the tariff rollercoaster
Farmers are accustomed to roller-coaster years. But the current geopolitical windstorm is something else entirely. On his cattle operation near…
Also like any marriage, it’s got the relatives wondering how long it will be before the divorce. Loblaws, which first agreed to talk to Country Guide for this story and then declined, has said it wanted T&T so it could get hands-on experience in the sector of the business that is now called diversity marketing.
The question in the food trade is, can an established Canadian retailer such as Loblaws successfully stickhandle a play as different as T&T?
I put the question to Martin Gooch, director of the value chain management centre at the George Morris Centre, an agricultural think-tank in Guelph, Ont. Like others, Gooch says he was surprised — but at the same time wasn’t — by the acquisition.
Loblaws, he explains, has been the most proactive of the large Canadian food retailers in scoring proven international retailing capabilities in the people they have hired. That experience provides different outlooks and perspectives on strategic opportunities in an increasingly competitive market.
Loblaws, says Gooch, already excels at creating different banners to cater to different consumers. “They’re not a one-size-fits-all, which increasingly doesn’t work, even though we still in agriculture still try to do that and then we wonder why someone benefits from adding value.”
While many Loblaws stores carry a wide range of Asian foods, Gooch points out that T&T is very different from a typical Canadian retailer. And compared to many other Asian supermarkets, he says, T&T is more upscale and tends to attract higher income, more discerning ethnic consumers. That means that Loblaws is securing a market segment where it can make more margin.
The T&T experience
Stuck in a shopping centre with my toddler while my wife and eldest child saw a Thomas the Train movie, I felt caged. Not sure of the best way to entertain him, I remembered a nearby T&T supermarket and hoped there might be some live seafood to help us bide the time.
I was right about the seafood. And I wasn’t the only dad thinking so. We were just getting to the giant clams, hanging out of their shells like long, drool-covered tongues, when another dad and toddler sidled up to us to check out the clams. They’re called giant elephant clams because of the long, trunk-like protrusions that must be about a foot long.
Later, talking Sandra Creighton, public affairs manager, I mention the seafood. “A lot of people just come to see the seafood section. They’re so amazed,” she laughs.
While most T&T shoppers are Asian, she says, “We also see the growth in mixed ethnicity.” Alongside Filipino customers, whose culture shares a lot of ingredients and spices with Chinese culture, she says, there are more and more non-Asian shoppers. And even
the Chinese clientele isn’t homogeneous, with shoppers having roots in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Creighton tells me that this year is the 17th anniversary of the Richmond B.C.-based chain, which has 17 stores across Canada, including three in Alberta, eight in B.C., and six in Ontario.
Creighton explains that most employees speak Mandarin or Cantonese or some other Chinese dialect, an important element that helps Asian customers feel at home. As we’re talking, her cellphone rings and she asks me to hang on while she responds to the call. I hear her greet the other caller with the one Chinese phrase I recognize, ni hao, which means hello.
Standing out
Creighton says T&T is known for its wide selection of Asian foods, for its freshness, and for its wide selection of produce. Shoppers come here for Asian food first and foremost, she says.
The produce includes the same types of lettuce and broccoli found in mainstream chain stores, but also includes Chinese favourites such as yu choy and gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Much of the produce, say Creighton, is Canadiangrown. “We work very closely with different vendors, including local farmers.” Some things, though, are imported, such as the large spiny durian fruit that is imported from Thailand, or Asian favourites such as guava and dragon fruit.
“We also have a very nice hot food area,” says Creighton as she describes sweet and sour pork, and the bakery section that has cakes and sweet buns. “If you haven’t tried them you should, they’re delicious,” she says of the sweet buns.
When I ask about her outlook for production of Asian-style foods here in Canada, Creighton points to Asian frozen meals. Frozen meals, she explains, are a perfect entry point for mainstream consumers. “Just like pizza,” she adds, as she describes how easy it is for busy people — and people unfamiliar with how to make it from scratch — to pop a frozen pizza in the oven. Less daunting, I imagine, than cooking an elephant clam for the first time.
Retail and the agrifood sector
“We hear too often agricultural leaders and commentators saying retailers control what happens,” Gooch tells me. “Really, that’s far from the truth. They’re operating in a very competitive marketplace.”
T&T gives Loblaws a chance to plant a stake in the ground and get greater insights and ownership over what is already a very important sector of the Canadian market. That’s important, says Gooch, because the parameters of different consumer expectations and how to exploit them will get more sophisticated than it already is. He points to an increasingly fragmented market. “It shows that they realize this is a serious market opportunity and they need different skills, insights, and capabilities,” he says.
“Agriculture needs to take the same approach,” says Gooch, adding, “Agriculture is not adapting well to the rapidly changing consumer market, even though it needs to in order to remain competitive.”
There are agri-food businesses that seek out such insights, says Gooch, as he describes Canadian meat processors who engage Chinese marketers to tap into the Chinese retail sector here in Canada. “The industry can learn things from being able to serve the Chinese and other Asian markets in Canada to help them exploit opportunities overseas too.”
Challenges
“The challenge for Loblaws is going to be how do they blend their increasingly centralized purchasing and operations with a more regional supply and operations,” says Gooch, pointing to the example of provincially versus federally regulated meat plants.
Can Loblaw successfully stickhandle the T&T marriage? It’s definitely an intercultural marriage with huge cultural differences.
Journalists’ calls in to Loblaws are directed to email a nameless (and phone numberless) After offering to help arrange interviews with Loblaw and T&T for this writer (and sitting on the task for nearly a month), the nameless department missed the puck and without any more explanation simply emailed me: “We have spoken to our colleagues at T&T and at the moment we are not able to fulfill your request for an interview. Public Relations, Loblaw Companies Limited.”
A quick call to T&T a moment later yields a live person on the line, enthusiastically talking about what they do.
That is a culture shock that goes well beyond just food. They may be married, but they play by an entirely different set of rules.
Loblaw Companies Limited is no stranger to a diverse range of grocery store banners, with well-known names including Loblaws, Zehrs, Fortinos, Real Canadian Superstore, Valu-mart, No frills, and Maxi. Still, it came as a shock last September when
the company bought T&T Supermarket, one of Canada’s biggest Asian supermarket chains.
Sandra Creighton, public affairs manager for T&T Supermarket, sums up internal reaction with just three words: “We got married.” And like any marriage, the union has involved bringing together two different sets of in-laws, two different ways of doing things, and two very different ways of talking.
Also like any marriage, it’s got the relatives wondering how long it will be before the divorce. Loblaws, which first agreed to talk to Country Guide for this story and then declined, has said it wanted T&T so it could get hands-on experience in the sector of the business that is now called diversity marketing.
The question in the food trade is, can an established Canadian retailer such as Loblaws successfully stickhandle a play as different as T&T?
I put the question to Martin Gooch, director of the value chain management centre at the George Morris Centre, an agricultural think-tank in Guelph, Ont. Like others, Gooch says he was surprised — but at the same time wasn’t — by the acquisition.
Loblaws, he explains, has been the most proactive of the large Canadian food retailers in scoring proven international retailing capabilities in the people they have hired. That experience provides different outlooks and perspectives on strategic opportunities in an increasingly competitive market.
Loblaws, says Gooch, already excels at creating different banners to cater to different consumers. “They’re not a one-size-fits-all, which increasingly doesn’t work, even though we still in agriculture still try to do that and then we wonder why someone benefits from adding value.”
While many Loblaws stores carry a wide range of Asian foods, Gooch points out that T&T is very different from a typical Canadian retailer. And compared to many other Asian supermarkets, he says, T&T is more upscale and tends to attract higher income, more discerning ethnic consumers. That means that Loblaws is securing a market segment where it can make more margin.
The T&T experience
Stuck in a shopping centre with my toddler while my wife and eldest child saw a Thomas the Train movie, I felt caged. Not sure of the best way to entertain him, I remembered a nearby T&T supermarket and hoped there might be some live seafood to help us bide the time.
I was right about the seafood. And I wasn’t the only dad thinking so. We were just getting to the giant clams, hanging out of their shells like long, drool-covered tongues, when another dad and toddler sidled up to us to check out the clams. They’re called giant elephant clams because of the long, trunk-like protrusions that must be about a foot long.
Later, talking Sandra Creighton, public affairs manager, I mention the seafood. “A lot of people just come to see the seafood section. They’re so amazed,” she laughs.
While most T&T shoppers are Asian, she says, “We also see the growth in mixed ethnicity.” Alongside Filipino customers, whose culture shares a lot of ingredients and spices with Chinese culture, she says, there are more and more non-Asian shoppers. And even
