More new grocery stores to open in New Jersey

A couple of new Shop Rites and yet another Lidl are slated to open in the Garden State. The openings are part of an increasingly competitive grocery store battle in New Jersey.

One of the Shop Rites and the Lidl store are both planned for Elmwood Park, while the other Shop Rite will be in Woolwich. According to NorthJersey.com, the new Lidl should open next month and the Shop Rite doesn’t have an opening date as construction needs to start.

Lidl had announced that they were aiming to open 50 new stores in New Jersey. Worldwide, Lidl has over 11,000 stores, with just over 100 in the US; its German competitor, Aldi, has 10,000 stores overall with a much larger footprint in the United States at 2,000 stores. Locations in Glassboro and Woodbridge opened this year among others, and new stores recently got zoning approval in both Parsippany and East Brunswick, while a store in Garwood and one in Belleville opened this month.

The Shop Rite in Elmwood Park will be on Route 4, just a few hundred yards from the new Lidl.

The new Shop Rite in Woolwich will be the first grocery store in the township; according to the Daily Journal, it will be over 77,000 square feet. It probably won’t open until 2023.

Other chains that have been expanding in New Jersey include Trader Joe’s, Amazon Fresh, and Aldi, all trying to compete with the state’s biggest grocery stores, including Shop Rite, Stop and Shop, and Acme.

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.