Monday, August 26, 2024

German supermarket powerhouse Lidl is opening an outpost on the Lower East Side

Lidl, the German supermarket chain with 12,000 stores worldwide, is opening a branch on Grand and Clinton on the Lower East Side. 

On Thursday, Lidl US officially announced that it had agreed on lease terms with affordable housing nonprofit Grand Street Guild for the 23,000-square-foot space at 408 Grand St. that previously housed a Rite Aid. (There were rumors of this pending arrival earlier last week, per the East of the Bowery Instagram account.)

There are several Lidl outposts around NYC, including Queens and Staten Island. When the Grand Street grocery opens next summer, it will be the third in Manhattan. There's one in Harlem now, with a location opening in Chelsea. (And more groceries are on the way.) 

Lidl US first arrived in Virginia in June 2015. The U.S. expansion hasn't been smooth, per a June 24 post on Grocery Dive
Renowned across Europe for the potent mix of low prices and high-quality goods that defines its thousands of colorful stores, Lidl arrived stateside with deep pockets, a highly developed private label strategy and a disciplined focus on efficiently running a complex business in a highly competitive environment. 

But instead of steadily growing its U.S. footprint as it had originally intended, Lidl US has moved ahead in fits and starts, prompting questions about why its value-focused business model has trouble gaining traction on American soil.
This retail space is on the other side of Grand and Clinton from Target, which opened in August 2018. (And yes — there's a Trader Joe's nearby too.)

11 comments:

  1. And also Trader Joe's on the lower lever

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  2. It’s on the same side of Grand as Target/Trader Joe’s. Same intersection though.

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  3. No, there's no Trader Joe's on the lower level, there's a Trader Joe's across the street. No idea why someone would go to Lidl. There's a also a Target on top of the Trader Joe's, and a Metro Acres Market katty-korner (though why anyone would shop there beats me).

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    1. @8 42 What the first comment wrote is a simple addition to the last sentence of the article. I don't understand how this isn't obvious to you

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    2. you are wrong. TJ’s is a subterranean store.

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    3. lower level=basement=subterranean=cellar. All the same thing ! Lower level Does Not mean street level !

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  4. A Three Supermarket intersection - which one will you choose!

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  5. Lidl for produce, maybe?

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  6. Wow great news! Now I don't have to schlepp up to Aldi uptown. They're also opening two Lidl's in Brooklyn and one in Chelsea. Interestingly these low-cost successful stores (Aldi, Lidl and Trader Joe) all have German parent companies.

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  7. I saw the scaffolding and was wondering what was going on there. Lidl is deep discount and may be a good resource for some of the affordable-housing population that's filled in there dramatically over the past five years (not just Essex Crossing but at least two other high-rises). Metro Acres isn't thrilling, but it's the only full-service supermarket for some distance and it's open til 10.

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  8. Lidl is great! Good prices for food and other goods. Happy to see this in the neighborhood

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