More than two years after Lidl received approval to build its third Delaware store, it’s still unclear when the German grocer’s Bear location will open.
Construction of the store has appeared complete since the middle of last year, but the store is “still in the planning phase,” according to company spokesperson Chandler Spivey.
Spivey said Lidl expects to “have more of an update over the coming months.”
The nearly 30,000-square-foot store took the place of the Countryside Nursery and Garden Center at Pulaski Highway and Salem Church Road. The store’s signage and other details, such as shopping cart corrals and some landscaping, have been in place for several months. A “coming soon” sign was recently placed along Route 40.
At one point, Lidl planned for the store to open in July 2020, according to New Castle County planning documents. At that time, the company was still in the process of gaining county approval.
DELAWARE GROCERY STORES: Delaware’s first Wegmans is taking shape. The store will be smaller than Concordville one.
The county eventually approved the project in May 2020. Months later, the Bear store appeared on a list of 50 Lidl stores expected to open by the end of 2021.
Today, 45 of those 50 stores have opened.
Lidl pushed the timeline for the store’s opening back by a year to fall 2022 when asked about apparent construction progress in September 2021.
“Like thousands of businesses, we have seen that COVID-19 has put pressure on the materials supply chain and that does impact our planning,” Will Harwood, Lidl’s director of communications, said at the time.
Lidl still needs to pass a final county inspection before it can open. County planner Janet Vinc said there are “several interior fit-out items that need to be addressed and all required landscaping needs to be installed.” Once those items are addressed, the company can request a final inspection for a certificate of occupancy, which is needed to open the business.
Lidl received its commercial building permit in December 2020. After getting an extension in January, the permit is due to expire June 10. Vinc said the land use department generally allows two permit extensions “provided that the project is still advancing towards completion.”
If Lidl receives a second extension, its building permit would expire near the end of the year.
Lidl bills itself as a low-priced, high-quality alternative to traditional “cookie-cutter” grocery stores. Similar to its German counterpart Ald, Lidl’s offerings are more limited than traditional grocery stores and are displayed in the boxes they were shipped in. Around 90% of Lidl’s products are produced by its own private-label brands.
Both companies have more than 10,000 stores worldwide, but Aldi has a much larger presence in the U.S. With more than 2,000 stores, Aldi is the third-largest grocer in the U.S., according to JLL data. Lidl has about 150 stores in the U.S. concentrated on the East Coast.
In the time since Lidl announced its Bear location, Aldi has added more stores in Delaware, located in the Christiana Town Center off Route 273 and off Coastal Highway in Rehoboth Beach. The company has plans for another location in Millsboro, which would bring their Delaware count to eight.
Lidl has stores off Middletown Warwick Road in Middletown and on Route 13 in Dover.
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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
