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2023 has been a challenging year for large national retailers. Some have gone bankrupt and had to shutter all of their stores, like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning, Christmas Tree Shops and Buy Buy Baby, while others have opted to close down locations to help save money, like Foot Locker, Walgreens, Bath & Body Works, Sears, Party City, Gap and Banana Republic, and many others. Well now, a popular discount supermarket chain is joining their ranks. Lidl recently announced the closures of stores in six states.
In statements about the 11 different store closings, the company explained, "This was an underperforming location, and we made the strategic decision to close this location so we can focus on the locations that are closer and more convenient to more of our customers and where we are seeing significant growth."
The stores, which shuttered this week, were in Cary, North Carolina; Thomasville, North Carolina; Charlottesville, Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; Howell, New Jersey; Burlington Township, New Jersey; North Augusta, South Carolina; Florence, South Carolina; Oxon Hill, Maryland; Brooklyn Park, Maryland, and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania - a location that had only been open for 18 months.
Shoppers are upset over the news, with one telling the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, "I am so disappointed. I come here twice a week and I like the products and the prices and I shop even the aisles with toys and books!"
For now, Lidl's other locations, over 160 of them, will stay in business, and the company plans to continue to grow. They're currently building a massive 33,000-square-foot store in Brooklyn, New York, which they intend to open soon.