After being left vacant for over two years, the old Lucky’s has plans for a new tenant: Asian grocery store chain T&T Supermarket, which is planned to open in Winter of 2026. The Canadian Supermarket chain has made a recent push into the U.S with it starting in Washington, and now the Bay Area. The Millbrae store, when opened, will be their 3rd store on the peninsula after locations in San Francisco, and San Jose. It joins a crowded grocery store scene with Lunardi’s, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s within its vicinity.
T&T Supermarket was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 1993 by Cindy and Jack Lee (interestingly with investment from the owners of 99 Ranch Market, now one of their major competitors). It was bought by Loblaw Companies Ltd., a supermarket giant similar to Albertson’s (owner of Safeway) in the U.S. According to industry research group IBISWorld, they were the second largest supermarket company in Canada with 37.1% market share. T&T is the largest Asian supermarket chain in Canada and in 2024, they expanded into the U.S with stores in Washington. Now, they are coming to Millbrae, using the building which was formerly home to Lucky’s which closed in 2023. At the time, there had been plans to bulldoze the building and build mixed-use residential, but it appears these plans fell through and T&T took over the space.
There are still some bureaucratic hoops which T&T must get through. According to Millbrae Community Development Director Andrew Morgensen, T&T has applied for a conditional use permit at the site. This is not expected to be much of a problem as Morgensen said, “since this is a grocery store replacing a grocery store (no change of use), there is no expansion, and the changes are minor, we expect the potential impact on the surrounding neighborhood will be similar to when Lucky’s was in operation.“ After this, it will go in front of the Millbrae Planning Commission, and then get all the remaining appropriate permits from the city.
Mills student Alice Meng (9) is quite happy with the new direction that has been taken with the vacant building. Regarding the original plan to turn it into a mixed-use residential complex, she said, “I thought it was bad, because it’s like a perfect spot for, you know, a grocery store.” Meng enjoys cooking, especially Asian cuisine so she often has a need for Asian ingredients. Currently Meng goes to 99 Ranch Market in Daly City which is a solid 15 minute drive from Mills. Thanks to its convenient location, Meng said it might displace 99 Ranch Market for Asian grocery shopping because “99 Ranch is quite far.”
Another competitor for the new T&T is Sun’s Market off El Camino in Millbrae. It is much smaller than T&T with it being independently owned. Both Sun’s Market and T&T are Chinese focused. Meng, who also goes to Sun’s Market said, “I think it’ll probably be a bit of a threat to Sun’s Market, because it’s all in the same area.”
An open question is if T&T can succeed in the same spot where an established store closed, but Meng seemed optimistic, saying it would be successful “because Millbrae, I mean, it’s filled with Asian families.” During the 2020 census, 52% of Millbrae identified as Asian, giving them a large potential customer base. Another Mills Student, Nikki Yuan (10) agreed with Meng saying that T&T will be successful, reasoning, “Asian cuisine has been trending in the media as of late.”
Many Mills students are excited. “I can, you know, get snack stuff easily, easier, versus going all the way to Safeway or some other,” Meng shared. Yuan also is excited, saying, “Once I heard that T&T was opening, I was very excited!” and added, “I heard that they’ll have a bakery inside the market. I’m excited to try the different pastries.”
As long as all goes to plan, Millbrae may have another competitor in the supermarket game.
