Ottawa T&T Supermarket opens to huge crowds
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | 3:20 PM ET Comments7Recommend29
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/stor...wa-091028.html

Some people outside the new store at 9 a.m. said they had been waiting two hours. The doors opened at 10:30 a.m. (Kate Porter/CBC)
Hundreds of people flooded Ottawa's first T&T Asian supermarket on its opening day, overflowing into a line that snaked toward the parking lot.
Some said they had waited since 7 a.m. so they could surge inside when the new 51,000 square-foot store at Hunt Club Road and Riverside Drive in Ottawa's south end welcomed its first customers at 10:30 a.m.
Carter Chin, Justin Ngo and Shirley Huang arrived more than two hours early, hoping to get one of the $10 gift cards being handed out to the first 200 people in the store. They said they were "super-excited" when they heard the store was coming to Ottawa.
"It's awesome. It sells everything, right? Like sushi and dim sum — everything you can get in a grocery store," said Huang. Previously, she said, she and her friends would make the long trip to the T&T in Toronto if they wanted to buy Asian foods.
The new store, which stocks a wide variety of Asian and Western groceries, was the 18th location to open in the popular chain, which was recently bought by Loblaws. The store includes a live seafood section, counters that sell a variety of Asian takeout and a Chinese bakery.
Soon after opening, the sprawling building was at capacity and people had to line up outside, as crowds of Asian Canadians continued to spill out of OC Transpo buses and family cars. Police directed traffic in and out of the parking lot.
Patrick Su, a funding co-ordinator with the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre and a member of the local Chinese media, said the fresh bakery and the availability of fresh Asian fruits that aren't at ordinary grocery stores make T&T very attractive to local Asian Canadians.
But he suggested that it could also hurt some Ottawa businesses.
"It's a one-stop shop for everything," he said. "People will shop here instead of Chinatown in the future."