Sungiven is on my list of chain grocery stores to visit when shopping for Asian grocery items. They have expanded progressively since my early visits to their Vancouver City Square and Hastings location when it first opened years ago. Sungiven now have locations in South Surrey, Langley, White Rock, Richmond and this review is on their Big Bend Store by Market Crossing.
Just for comparison fun, let's compare Big Bend Store with my original preferred Hastings location.
Big Bend location has no parking issues. They have ample parking spaces in a huge parking lot whereas Hastings location is a lot more limited in parking lot size and often must wait for parking spots during busy times.
IMO, Hastings location is "prettier and seems brighter"! Hmm, someone can enlighten me re lighting selection. Hastings store seems to have better lighting and would immediately remind me of Trader Joe's whereas the Big Bend store is more dimly lit and the design layout seems less welcoming.
I can pick up seafoods at Hastings location via WeChat pre-order and Big bend location is kinda hit or miss, depending on what they have ordered in store and still available at the time of visit. Last week, I bought their last whole Tilapia fish in stock and it cooked well.
Hastings location may be smaller but I find their staff very helpful and friendly. They even use to gift their unsold baked goods close to store closing or gift to customers who purchased a certain amount of groceries. I miss the staff at Hastings location who works hard to display a warm neighbourhood store feeling.
Big Bend is larger and obviously can be stocked with more items than Hastings. But they offer less of the Trader Joe's vibes so I shop here for practical convenience and not for any warm staff or friendly service. It's easy to park, offers a bigger grab and go section and I have yet to try their advertised organic coffee for 99 cents.
Pricing wise, as with any chain grocery stores, not all items are best priced. One may find bargain deals for 99 cents at Sungiven or more pricey import items like Korean muscat grapes.
Would be best to know what you want and what's fair price point for your purchases.
Sungiven have a pricing advantage when sourcing items from China as they own their manufacturer or supplier there. Thus, I have often found better pricing on select items from their own in-house Sungiven brand and prefer to buy import items at Sungiven. T&T have a higher tendency to be overpriced when buying overseas import items since they don't own any food suppliers and I often get sticker shock at T&T.
In general, I prefer Sungiven when shopping for fruits, sweets, snacks, import items and select T&T stores for fresh seafoods. read more