Dive Brief:
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The first 20 of Lidl's U.S. stores will be opening this summer, and will be followed by another 80 within a year, according to The Washington Post.
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Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina will be getting the initial stores, but the company hasn't specified which of the in-progress sites will open first.
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Lidl U.S. President Brendan Proctor said in a statement in Supermarket News that the German chain's U.S. stores would offer a combination of convenience, price and quality — compromises consumers have to make too often.
Dive Insight:
The long-awaited German discount grocery invasion is at hand. While Aldi has been doing business in the U.S. for several years and has been gaining popularity, Lidl's opening has been anxiously awaited — and dreaded — by shoppers and other retailers.
Lidl has been recruiting for employees to staff its U.S. stores for more than a month, and qualifications for store manager applicants includes something truly exceptional: They need to have a passport in anticipation of a six-month training period including time in Germany. When the stores open, management will have quite a lot of grounding in how the popular discount store does business.
At 30,000 square feet, the Lidl stores will be twice the size of most Aldis, giving the latter an advantage in product range and, more than likely, how easily shoppers can get around the stores. Proctor says they stores will offer “a unique shopping experience.”
Lidl, which has a low-profile test store in Fredericksburg, VA, showed off its interior in a Washington Post article this week. The interior's “look and feel” remains a mystery. But not for much longer.
