99 Ranch Market is closing its Chino store on Nov. 15 and its Pleasanton store on Dec. 5, a pair of shutdowns that will cost 103 workers their jobs just as rival Asian grocery chains push harder into California. Tawa Supermarket Inc., the chain's Buena Park-headquartered parent company, filed two state notices spelling out the closures and layoffs this week.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Tawa filed two Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices on Monday. The Chino store at 4024 Grand Ave. will permanently close on Nov. 15, laying off 49 employees, while the Pleasanton store at 4299 Rosewood Drive will shut its doors on Dec. 5, affecting 54 workers. Per the Daily Bulletin, the Chino filing was signed by Lily Mao, Tawa's director of human resources, who wrote in the state filing that layoffs would occur when the store closes. The Daily Bulletin also notes that 99 Ranch Market has another store at 2959 Chino Ave., located a little more than two miles from the location now slated for closure.
Tawa's filings were made under the federal WARN Act, which requires advance notice when an employer lays off more than 50 employees at a site. The U.S. Department of Labor states that covered employers generally must give at least 60 calendar days' advance written notice for a plant closing or mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees at a single location, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Company Cites Network Optimization
In its filing, the company framed the closures as a strategic move rather than a sign of broader trouble. “This decision will optimize our store network and allocate resources more effectively,” the company said, per the Los Angeles Times report. The chain now operates more than 60 stores across 11 states, with most of its branches located in California, the same report notes.
99 Ranch Market traces back to 1984, when founder Roger Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant, saw a need for an Asian supermarket catering to local communities and opened his first store in Westminster, according to the Los Angeles Times. The chain has since grown into a major regional grocer specializing in Chinese and other Asian pantry goods, produce, fish, meat and bakery items. Alice Chen now serves as the company's chief executive officer and Jonson Chen as its chairman, per a report from the Orange County Register. The chain employs between 5,000 and 10,000 people, according to LinkedIn data cited in that same report.
Store Counts Differ Between Reports
Exactly how many stores Tawa operates in California depends on which account you read. The Orange County Register's June report stated that Tawa listed 25 of its 99 Ranch Market stores across Southern California and 19 in Northern California, while the Daily Bulletin's more recent figures put those numbers at 24 in Southern California and 18 in Northern California. The discrepancy between the two counts is not explained in either report.
Asian Grocery Competition Intensifies
The closures land amid what the Los Angeles Times describes as heating competition among Asian grocers in California, especially in the Bay Area. H Mart has been expanding with a new East Bay location and plans for a 100,000-square-foot, two-level store in Fremont, the paper reports. T&T Supermarket opened a 55,000-square-foot store in San José in June and has plans for additional locations in San Francisco and Millbrae.
That expansion push isn't limited to Northern California. The Orange County Register reported in June that T&T Supermarket announced plans to expand south with a store opening in Irvine in late 2026, along with another planned for Chino Hills — not far from the 99 Ranch Market store now set to close. Grocery closures aren't unique to the Asian grocery sector either; Grocery Outlet announced in March that it was shuttering 36 underperforming stores nationwide, including six in Southern California, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Discrimination Lawsuit Still Pending
The store closures come as Tawa faces a separate legal fight. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the company in June, alleging that Tawa violated federal law by firing and otherwise discriminating against non-Chinese workers based on national origin, according to a statement from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These remain allegations in an active case and have not been determined by a court.
The EEOC's lawsuit alleges that Tawa failed to promote non-Chinese store-level employees because they were not Chinese, paid them less than their Chinese counterparts, and scheduled them for fewer work hours. The agency also said some non-Chinese workers felt they had no choice but to resign. Per the lawsuit, the alleged workplace problems may have begun as early as 2015, when Tawa allegedly terminated recently hired non-Chinese managers at multiple store locations.
