Retail Watchers

While I already think Lidl's marketing plan in the U.S. is a little dubious to be a success, the other big question for Lidl is its expansion plan. Already in addition to East Coast markets, it's going to Texas, but in areas pretty spread out from each other: Pearland, Bryan, and Conroe, about 15, 84, and 40 miles out from Houston, respectively. A crash-n-burn from Lidl isn't imminent, but I can't help but wonder if they're digging their own grave with odd expansion like so...

In order to survive and grow nationwide, they're going to have to test the waters. Unlike what Aldi has done (a veeeeeerrrrryyy slow growth from essentially Chicago out), they want to move fast. That's what they're doing here.

It looks like Lidl is not having much success initially.

"That change, according to the report, was to address Gehrig’s concerns that the performance at least some of Lidl’s 37 U.S. operating stores have been “frighteningly weak,” and that the prescription to fix them was to introduce additional discipline in executing the company’s plan. "

http://www.supermarketnews.com/news/lid ... -us-report

A Lidl location finally opened within a reasonable distance from my house. As a pretty dedicated Aldi shopper I wanted to take a peek at what Lidl was all about. A few observations from what I saw:

- Pricing is all over the place even on Lidl store brands. Some pricing is rock bottom like Aldi, others are in the Wal-Mart range and still others are in the range of a traditional grocer.

- Store brands are just blah in their design. There is nothing that attracts you to them. Aldi has a knack for designing store brands that are attractive and stand out on the shelf. I think that Aldi's heavy use of all their made up brand names for different product categories are a big part of this. Lidl store brands are all marked with what it is and some basic artwork along the lines of the product. They do not even have the Lidl logo name or brand on the package.

- The Lidl stores are quite large and spread out for what I thought they would be. The Lidl I went to is easily twice as large as an Aldi. The environment was like a cross between Harris Teeter and Publix with the whole limited assortment thing going on. The store environment is much nicer than Aldi but there is a disconnect between the environment and the product that the store actually sells. At least at Aldi the store environment matches what the place is all about - low price, good quality, quick in and out. I suspect that Lidl thinks of itself as a high end grocer with rock bottom limited assortment pricing. Something about that just seems out of place in the American market.

- The bakery is excellent. No question about that. Also the produce presentation is much like a traditional grocer. As much as I like Aldi their produce presentation and quality is still average at best.

- The Lidl parking lot and the parking lot of the gas station next door were strewn with shopping carts from Lidl. There were plenty of employees around but none of them were gathering up the discarded carts. Aldi's quarter system for the carts really does keep the areas around their stores looking clean and tidy.

If Aldi is Lidl's primary competition then I don't think Aldi has much to worry about. Where I think Lidl might make some dents are with marginal grocers and locations of strong grocers that are outdated or run poorly. Would I go back to Lidl? Maybe and then only for the bakery. There is nothing about Lidl that seemed special or any better than the grocers that I shop at now. I feel like Lidl is jumping into the US market with a formula that worked elsewhere and they are hoping it works here without really understanding the market. Aldi has taken the time to understand the US market as they have grown. It seems like Lidl is jumping in at full speed ahead. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

Twice as large as an Aldi is going to need to do some pretty significant volume to work. It also sounds like a more perishable-heavy format.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Or how long it stays in operation.

Here is another article from Forbes with some observations made by the journalist: https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilstern/ ... 0a3ce92646


One of the things mentioned is that the stores just seem 'too big' and are trying to sell too many non-food items.

They will be coming to the Cincinnati area in the fairly near future. They aren't announcing locations but a local news outlet figured out where two of the stores will be.

I suppose Lidl has its reasons for choosing Cincinnati as one of its earliest markets. But Aldi has recently been accelerating the pace of its local expansion On the other hand, the number of Save-A-Lots in the area has drastically fallen in the last couple of years, so maybe they see an opening there. It will be interesting to see what develops.

Not sure if the Lidl thread is the best place to post this, but I was shocked when my friend posted that Aldi is selling Kitchen Aid lookalike mixers for $69.99.
https://www.aldi.us/en/weekly-specials/ ... and-mixer/

Showing me a price of 59.99... can't tell if it is pulling my location or? The closest Aldis to me would be SoCal.

I made an error. Yes, $10 less, $59.99. Still quite a bit less than the "big" brand ones.