Lidl poised for 'record-breaking food retail success'
Lidl's acquisition of 27 Best Market stores in New York and New Jersey positions the German retailer for “record-breaking food retail success.”
According to Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of New York-based Strategic Retail Group, “Lidl’s purchase of Best Markets will revolutionize U.S. retail and put formidable financial pressures on food retailers, while shoppers benefit from unprecedented price wars.”
In Flickinger’s opinion, the German deep-discounter is “initiating a major European invasion of U.S. retail,” first through its audacious plans to enter the country in a big way in 2017 with a string of stores along the East Coast—plans that hit a snag when the initial locations underperformed, forcing Lidl to slow its pace of expansion—and now with the Best Market acquisition, which brings it squarely into the strategic New York metro area, along with its conversion of former Pathmark and A&P stores in greater Philadelphia.
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When reached by Progressive Grocer (Canadian Grocer's sister publication) for comment regarding the latter move, which has mostly flown under the radar, A Lidl spokesman replied: "We just announced the grand opening date of our Folsom, Pa., store, which will be on Dec. 5. Beyond Folsom, we have not made any announcements for sites in the Philadelphia area." He added, however, that the company would have "more to share in the future."
‘COMPETITIVE COMPLACENCY’
Lidl “is the worst competitive nightmare for all U.S. food retailers” and big chains have been complacent, said Flickinger.
“With the notable exceptions of Ahold Delhaize’s Stop & Shop and Albertsons’ Acme, the major supermarket chains
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Flickinger noted, “All the Eastern U.S. retail supermarket chains became institutionally insipid as the undercapitalized D-rated competitors”—including A&P, Fairway, Tops, Penn Traffic, Southeaster Grocers—“filed for bankruptcy.” A&P and Penn Traffic, of course, are no more.
What’s more, he argued: “All the U.S. CEOs and executive committees and their multimillion-dollar big-fee consulting firms failed for years to analyze how Lidl ran the biggest retailer in commercial world history. … For failing to do their homework, this generation of U.S. supermarket CEOs will have proverbial ‘hell to pay’ in losing sales, profits and market share, as their U.S. shoppers segue to Lidl in record numbers to save record amounts of money on their weekly grocery bills.”
A version of this article appeared at ProgressiveGrocer.com.