Special Report: LIDL - Pelham, NY

LIDL Food Market

Opened: November 13, 2024

Owner: Schwarz Group

Previous Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants

Cooperative: none

Location: 834 Pelham Pkwy, Pelham, NY

Photographed: December 6, 2024

Happy Sunday, and welcome to this weekend's first of two LIDL posts. After some missteps, the German-based discount supermarket chain has returned to expansion mode in the United States, especially here in the northeast. And while I was skeptical of LIDL at first -- okay, I really didn't like LIDL -- they've completely turned around their operation and their newest stores in this area are first-rate. Most importantly, at least in my book, they beat ALDI any day.

And if you're not familiar with LIDL, ALDI is perhaps the best comparison. The stores tend to be quite a bit larger than ALDI, but the approach is similar: a limited assortment of primarily store-brand items sold in a no-nonsense environment. But from my latest observations the LIDL stores I've been to have been much nicer and better maintained than the equivalent ALDIs -- including newer ALDIs -- and the prices seem to be similar, with LIDL offering a much wider selection. LIDL also has in-store bakeries, which tend to be really good from what I've tried, but no other service departments.

This new location, which opened in November just outside the Bronx and Mount Vernon in the tiny village of Pelham, appears to be a bit smaller than most LIDLs at around 26,000 square feet. It's still bigger than the typical ALDI size of closer to 18,000 square feet.

The bakery is set up as self-service, with rows of baked goods behind glass doors and stocked from behind. In the LIDLs I've been to lately, business at the bakery has been brisk but they've also been very good with stocking. A couple years ago, I noticed the bakeries were very poorly stocked very often.

LIDL still has a limited produce department compared to most large supermarkets, but as you can see it's larger than a discount store like ALDI or Grocery Outlet, for instance.

Here in this store, produce and bakery are in the front-right corner with meat and cold cuts in the rest of the first aisle. Dairy lines the back wall with frozen foods on the left side. In the back center of the store is the Midl of Lidl, as they call it, which is the general merchandise area.

Below you can see the signage for the Midl of Lidl, which is kind of a corny name but good, clear signage.

Here you can see LIDL's large selection of seasonal Christmas items, under the Favorina brand.

The decor has been simplified -- see here for an earlier version and here for the original US decor -- and while I'm sure it's cheaper, I actually like the cleaner look. Of course, that original building design -- and the decor that went along with it -- were beautiful, but they were also very expensive and land to build new buildings like that around here is in short supply. So even though the decor is a downgrade from the original iteration, the actual execution of the store is far better, in my opinion.

Dairy and frozen line the last aisle.

LIDL has also installed self-checkouts in newer stores, something that wasn't included in the original ones (causing long lines and unhappy shoppers).

While we're on the subject of LIDL, don't miss their new location in Livingston, New Jersey, and we're also going to check out a new CTown in East Harlem today!