Lidl Glassboro Opens February 24!

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We’ve hit the big time at 42Freeway… we got an official Press Release from LIDL announcing their new Glassboro store Grand Opening is set for February 24th.  The store opens at 8am, after a 7:40am ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Glassboro – February 24th
779 Delsea Drive
Glassboro, New Jersey 08028

Opening event details can be found at their website.   Key details in bullets below!

• The ribbon cutting ceremony begins at 7:40 a.m. and we open our doors at 8:00 a.m.
• The first 100 customers will be presented with a special gift card ranging from $5 to $100 each
• Music provided by a local DJ
• Enter for a chance to win a $500 gift card

This is both surprising… and not surprising!  All indications at the store and the rumor-mill said they were looking at a February opening, but the LIDL “Grand Opening Page” didn’t have Glassboro listed, when they had a Maryland store already publicized.   With the press release going out, they have update their page.

Glassboro K-Mart Transformation

We’ve said this before… but worth mentioning again… Kudos to the folks at Brixmor for doing an awesome job at quickly flipping Glassboro’s K-mart property into three new very popular stores.

Already opened are a relocated Big Lots, a new Ross store, and now the Lidl Supermarket.

I was in the Glassboro K-mart somewhat close to the closing, and honestly… I think any one of these three stores have more customers in them than the K-mart did.  And definitely the triple pack of Lidl, Big Lots and Ross is going to put more cars in that parking lot than that shopping center has seen in a long time.

And I read almost all the comments on the 42Freeway page, and no disrespect to my fans that I love… but some need to readjust to the retail climate today.

Some will say “Oh another discount clothing store.   We already have Aldi.   Big Lots is just a relocation”…  But people, its 2021.  We all know the retail market is condensing.  The internet is taking huge chunks of our buying dollar.  Those who are complaining about not getting a Wegmans, are taking a break from the keyboard only long enough to pick up their latest Amazon package up off the front step.

I’m not being mean…  just realistic.  The Blackwood K-Mart sits empty for a couple years now.   Lawnside K-Mart/Sears building has been empty for 5+ years?   Berlin K-mart and shopping center was painted black and looks like something from an apocalyptical zombie movie!

And Mantua’s K-mart is slated to become a massive indoor Self Storage facility!  I dont know the storage business well but it seems to me the foot traffic will be next to nothing, which won’t help the other stores in the center at all.

Only Brooklawn has had prior success with a K-mart conversion, and has done a nice job adding Planet Fitness, Petco and DaViata Health a few years ago.

And Glassboro’s quick changeover to three very viable retail stores may even be more impressive, given the increased state of internet shopping.

And the folks at Brixmor aren’t done with Glassboro!   The new Chase Bank recently opened (hmmm I didnt post on that opening), and the new Chipotle is really taking shape!

LIDL

I written so many posts on LIDL.. I am basically now just copying the descriptive portion from prior articles.  ha!

I honestly thought everyone knew about them by now, but I learned when I posted about the proposed Williamstown store earlier this week, that more than a few commented “Lidl?  I never heard of them!”

Lidl is a grocery store in the same category as Aldi.   The stores are sized and setup similarly, although the Lidl in-store bakery is a big differentiator!

They are a global company over 11,000 stores and 315,000 employees.  MASSIVE!

Vineland was opened as part of the first wave, and series of approvals were done at the time… and then things slowed up. 

They even spent over $3 million for a property in Mantua, and seems they have moved on from it.   (I honestly think its a great location and they should reconsider it!)

Now they are in the second wave of a big USA growth push and this time they seem to be going with a slightly smaller store.

A recently opened Cherry Hill location was one of the first to see the new smaller store size, as it was approved in planning twice!   First time was the larger square foot store, and before they started building, they changed plans towards the smaller store and gained approval again.  

A Blackwood (Gloucester Township) location was also approved for the Black Horse Pike.  At the time it was listed as one of 50 stores to open in 2021.  So far the only signs we’ve seen are crews testing the soil.

Very recently Lidl took ownership of a property in Somerdale on the White Horse Pike for $2.85 million.  What’s interesting about that is the Somerdale location didn’t make it on to the 50 upcoming stores press release.

A Voorhees location is still planned, after facing a legal fight (I need to look more into this, to synch up on its latest status)

A store for Mount Ephraim is planned, and  the upcoming location in Cinnaminson… readers updated me to say construction has started there!  I have to stop over this weekend.