German Discount Grocer Plans to Move In on Philadelphia
Right now there’s a booming market for discount grocery stores. Shoppers strapped for cash want lower prices on household staples, and they are willing to go whether they can find to get the deals. Lidl, a German low-price grocer, is banking on there being more room in the industry as they make plans to move in on Philadelphia.
German brand Lidl hopes to become a major player in the discount grocery game.
Lidl is currently building up a real estate team in Philadelphia, where it hopes to open its first stores outside of Europe and expand from there. Lidl, which is a unit of the Schwarz Group grocery conglomerate, is seeking an acquisitions manager and three other real estate professionals, according to a notice on its website. The chain is also seeking an acquisitions manager in Pittsburgh. At the same time, over one hundred jobs have been posted (ranging from store managers to human resources) for as-yet unbuilt stores in the stretch of America between Virginia, where Lidl’s Arlington headquarters are located, and Georgia.
In Philadelphia, Lidl will square off head-to-head with fellow German competitor Aldi, which has a long-standing presence in the area. Aldi stores are small and carry a lot fewer groceries than major supermarkets, but their home-brand products are also a lot cheaper. Aldi, headquartered in Batavia, Illinois, has over two thousand U.S. locations. Both Lidl and Aldi are trying to take advantage of the void left by A&P, which owned Pathmark and Super Fresh stores, which is now bankrupt, along with other unsuccessful grocery chains. Lidl is planning on attempting to sell name-brand groceries for rock-bottom prices in bigger stores, hopefully wooing customers away from Aldi.
According to Philly.com, most of the stores Lidl is pursuing would be in the Philadelphia suburbs and South Jersey region. Burt Flickinger III, managing director of the retail consultant Strategic Resource Group in New York, was quoted as calling Philadelphia “one of the highest-opportunity markets across America.”
With Lidl planning on taking the discount grocery business by storm with double-digit store openings, it remains to be seen whether the company can crush its established competition.
