There are now 174 Lidl grocery stores in the United States. The company has indicated that they are closing five stores this coming week since they are not productive. The German grocery store chain has 13,000 stores worldwide with a strong presence in Germany, United Kingdom, and other European countries.
Stores that are slated to be closed are located in Thomasville, N.C., Florence. S.C., Charlottsville and Richmond, Va. as well as Howell, N.J. The company opened their first stores in Virginia, and before these closing had 34 units in that state. Closing stores in Virginia is surprising, since the company thrives on density of units in one geographic location. Retail Dive reports that these stores we not as productive as other stores. On July 26th a new Lidl store will be opened in Lorton, Virginia.
The company is also committed to opening new stores in major cities. One such unit will be the 33,000 square foot anchor store in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights location where a mixed-use property is being developed.
Lidl belongs to the Schwarz Gruppe of Neckarsulm, Germany. Management established the U.S. headquarter in Arlington, Virginia in 2015 and opened their first stores in 2017. Expansion has been on the East coast. Their mission is to sells high quality produce, meat and baked goods and household products at reduced prices.
The company’s stores are like another German company – Aldi. This company opened their first U.S. stores in 1976 and is currently expanding with an additional 120 units and will soon have 2,400 stores throughout the United States. Similar to Lidl, this company also sells groceries at very low prices. Aldi also owns Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s has about 560 stores through-out the United States. There is a heavy concentration of Trader Joe’s stores in the Los Angeles area.
POSTSCEIPT: The initial entry of Lidl into the U.S. market was ill-advised. The company expanded into many states from Texas to Ohio. Subsequently, management concentrated their efforts on picking successful locations along the Eastern coastline of the United States. On repeated visits to stores I can confirm the quality of the food is the highest and service was very friendly. Just as importantly, Lidl has been successful in keeping their prices competitive with their rivals.
Read the full article here