Lidl, Aldi opening new stores in New Jersey

The choices for New Jersey grocery shoppers continue to grow with the opening of two more stores: Aldi has opened a new location in Monmouth Junction and Lidl will be opening a new store in Brick. Both chains are German, discount grocery stores that offer a no-frills shopping experience.

Things are getting awfully crowded in the supermarket competition in the Garden State; Amazon announced last month that they will be opening their version of a grocery store, Amazon Fresh in Woodland Park. Lidl, Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and Acme have all announced plans to increase their reach into New Jersey; Lidl alone said that they plan on doubling their number of locations here, the Brick store will be their 14th. Trader Joe’s opened their 19th store earlier this year, and Acme recently purchased 23 King’s Food Markets in New Jersey, and Aldi has plans to add to their 50 stores here.

According to Brick Shorebeat, Lidl’s Brick location will be in the Riverwalk shopping center, at the corner of Brick Boulevard and Hooper Avenue, and will occupy over 24,000 square feet. The new Aldi is on Route 1 at the site of a former Best Buy. Aldi says it is on track to become America’s third largest grocery chain by store count by 2022; it currently has 2,000 stores in 36 states. Worldwide, Aldi has over 10,000 stores. Lidl operates over 11,000 locations worldwide with just over 100 in the US and is planning another New Jersey store in Lawrenceville, among others.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.