Special Report: LIDL - Bronx, NY

LIDL
Opened: October 23, 2024

Owner: The Schwarz Group

Previous Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Cooperative: none

Location: 700 Exterior St, Melrose, Bronx, NY

Photographed: November 8, 2024

Across the Hudson about 18 miles, LIDL has opened a store in the southwestern Bronx very similar to an ALDI we're seeing in Wayne, New Jersey today. LIDL and ALDI continue to differentiate themselves, though, with ALDI in smaller stores with tighter product mixes -- theoretically for better prices -- and LIDL in larger stores with more expansive selections and more fresh offerings. We'll see all of that on display here at the Bronx Terminal Market ALDI, which opened on October 23 and was, I believe, the first store to open under LIDL's new branding.

The busy Bronx Terminal Market mall, located near Melrose and Mott Haven on the Harlem River, also has a Target, a BJ's, and a large Food Bazaar that opened in 2020. After years of delay -- largely due to the coronavirus -- that store's food hall has finally opened.

We saw this store over a year ago in progress, but it's finally open and looking great! After years of shaky starts and management changes, LIDL seems to really have figured it out here in the US. This store and another location I recently visited were noticeably better than older stores and execution across the board seems to be very good. This store was fully stocked, despite seeming very busy, and the prices looked excellent. In this immediate area, grocery choices are somewhat limited and, depending on the store, expensive.

The bakery is still the department that welcomes you when you enter, and in fact the layout hasn't really changed much. Bakery and produce are in the front-right corner with deli/cold cuts and prepared foods on the right side. Meat and seafood are at the back, with dairy and frozen on the left side. In the back of the center-store is an area called "the Midl of Lidl," a pretty funny name that I'm not totally sure actually works, and that's where they display the nonfoods, home goods, clothing, and other seasonal and general merchandise.

We can see here that this is a new decor package for LIDL, compared to the original and second-generation decor packages they were using.

As we can see, this store has a much larger selection of fresh items than the average ALDI. I think LIDL has finally figured out its product mix and pricing issues, and dare I say this store might even be better than the typical ALDI. It's still a pretty new store, though, so we'll see how execution goes in the long-term.

Here's a look at the Midl of Lidl at the back of the store.

And meat and seafood -- all packaged, of course -- on the back wall.

The grocery aisles feel somewhere between a discount store and a mainstream supermarket. I find LIDL's grocery aisles to be a little more appealing than ALDI's, but it also depends on the location.

Notice the digital price tags here, which I'm seeing in more and more stores.

Paper and cleaning on the left side of the store.

Above, we're looking back over towards the first aisle across the back wall...

...and down the last aisle, looking up towards the front wall.

This new decor is very simple, which I don't mind. It's got some good pops of color throughout, and the bigger thing is that there's a more relevant and more extensive product mix than LIDL had in the past, with very good pricing and a nice perimeter.

This is also, I believe, the first store to get LIDL's new slogan The Super-est Market. I like the idea, but I do wonder if it's a particularly appropriate slogan for LIDL -- a limited-assortment discount chain. Wouldn't this make more sense for someone like Wegmans, with massive stores and enormous selections?

Regardless, I'm really glad to see LIDL getting its act together, and it seems like they've figured enough out to be a serious competitor here and in other locations. Don't miss the rest of this weekend's posts!

• Renovations progress at the Carlstadt Food Bazaar while the Piscataway location has yet to start
• City Supermarkets is almost done renovating their new location in Kenilworth
• Most closed Stop & Shop stores remain vacant, including a location in Edison
• An independent grocer near Paterson has completed a renovation
• Over in Passaic, the exterior of a SuperFresh is getting a major rebuild

• ALDI opens a new store in Wayne
• LIDL opens their first store in the Bronx (this post)
• An independent opens near the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan
• Eataly brings their gourmet food hall concept to New Jersey for the first time
• And finally, a Key Food affiliate near Paterson changes ownership and banner