Service Analysis Report of T&t Supermarket

Service Analysis Report of T&T Supermarket

T&T Supermarket is the largest Asian supermarket chain in Canada which is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia. The first T&T Supermarket was opened in Metro Vancouver as a joint venture of a leading Taiwan conglomerate and a California-based chain of Asian supermarkets in 1993 and its vision was to provide the Asian immigrants a tidy and comfortable shopping environment for their authentic and high quality homeland food. In 2009, T&T was merged by Loblaw which is the largest food retailer in Canada . Today, T&T Supermarket has developed into a famous Asian supermarket chain popular among the Asian groups in Canada. There are 22 stores opened in 7 main districts of British Columbia, Albert and Ontario. With the slogan as "best in Asian Fresh ", T&T Supermarket's vision now is to be the best Asian supermarket chain in Canada.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

1. Provide authentic Asian food, groceries not available in other western supermarket as No-frills, Food Basic etc.

2. One-stop food supermarket covering fresh meat, fruits, vegetables sea food and exotic groceries.

3. Have unique in-store Bakery, Gourmet, hot and cold Deli section, different from most other supermarkets

4. Superior management to make it the cleanest and neatest Asian supermarket in Canada

5. Wide marketing reach: well-designed and informative website, Asian feature seasonal in store promotions, advertisements in social media.

6. With parent company as Loblaw, it has stronger financial support for future expansion

7. High reputation among Asian customers in Canada Weaknesses

1. Low recognition among mainstream Canadians

2. Limited supply of western food, especially the convenience food. Cannot meet western customers' needs.

3. Some stores have poor location, such as Toronto Downtown store

4. Higher prices for some groceries and fresh meat, fruits, vegetables and sea food compared with those of smaller Asian supermarkets

5. No nationwide standardized pricing policy and large price gap exists which may create competition within T&T stores.

6. No pharmacy service available for most stores

Opportunities

1. With Canada's favorable policy to Asian, more and more international students are coming to British Columbia, Albert and Ontario. This means growing customer group

2. With acquisition by Loblaw, opportunity for T&T to be promoted in Loblaw chain stores.

3. Expand business to cover pharmacy service , Asian beauty and health section (providing Asian skin cares, hair accessories products)

4. New service scope: photo printing center, key cutting, etc. Threats

1. Immigration policy is changed to restrict the immigration from China. This may impact the new customer number.

2. It takes time and energy to change people's existing recognition of Asian supermarket: bad shopping environment, cheap and low quality goods.

3. Changes in diet habit of the 2nd generation of Asian families. Their demand for homeland food is declining.

4. Fierce competition among Asian supermarkets.

Comprehensive Evaluation

The two stores I visited are the Toronto Downtown store located in Cherry Street in Toronto and the Milliken store located in Steeles Avenue East in Scarborough.

4P Analysis:

4P Toronto Downtown store Milliken store

Product 1. There are about 50% products from China, Hong Kang and Taiwan, 30% from other Asian countries, as Japan, Thailand, 20% from EU, US and local Canada. 2. They revised cooking way of some dishes in gourmet section to make them fit the western customers' needs. The Asian food composes 60-70% of total items. The in-store cooked food and delis are more authentic and there is one Asian style outsourced food court.

Price For regular items, the prices for most goods are 5%-10% higher than those of Milliken store. The prices of most items on weekly GTA flyer are the same as those in Milliken store. The store's own special items are not as many as Milliken's. The prices here are lower than that of Downtown store. Besides the items on weekly GTA flyer, it offers its own specials. For example, there are dozens items of Pilipino special for Diwali (festival of lights) this week.

Place The Downtown store is located near the cherry beach where there is no community nearby. There is only one bus you can take to