Lidl sets opening date for its ninth Charlotte-area store. More locations are planned.
The ninth Lidl store in the Charlotte area will open this month in University City.
The German low-cost grocer grand opening of the Mallard Creek store is at 7:40 a.m. Wednesday June 16 at 615 W. Mallard Creek Church Road, according to a company news release. The new store is near a Trader Joe’s and Harris Teeter, and is just down the road from the UNC Charlotte campus. Store hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
The University store is 25,400 square feet and will employ more than 40 people, company spokeswoman Chandler Ebeier said.
The news comes as Earth Fare opened another store in the Charlotte area on Wednesday and other grocers plot additional stores to take more local market share.
The first Charlotte Lidl store on Monroe Road opened in December 2019 followed by another store last year on Margaret Wallace Road in Matthews. Other area stores are in Rock Hill, Indian Trail, Gastonia and Concord.
A Lidl also opened in April in Steele Creek at 11225 S. Tryon St. And two other stores are planned at South Boulevard and Carmel Commons.
The Caramel Commons store is under construction and is expected to open next year, while the South Boulevard store is in the permitting phase, Ebeier said.
There are about 200 Lidl employees in the Charlotte area, and more than 900 in North Carolina, the Observer previously reported.
Other grocery stores opening
Lidl’s Charlotte market share grew from 1.7% in 2019 to 2.3% last year, tied with competitor discount German grocer Aldi, according to sales tracking firm Chain Store Guide’s latest annual report.
Aldi recently opened stores in Cornelius, Rock Hill and Indian Land, S.C.
Walmart is No. 1 in market share in the Charlotte region, followed by Matthews-based Harris Teeter and then Salisbury-based Food Lion, according to the guide.
Here are other expansion plans for grocers in the competitive market:
▪ Earth Fare Davidson, an 18,000-square-foot store at 261 Griffith St., opened this week. Hulsing Enterprises purchased the Asheville-based company brand following its bankruptcy filing in 2020. The organic grocer has since opened 21 stores on the East Coast in eight states, including five other Charlotte-area locations since August.
▪ In April, online-only Silicon Valley-based grocer Farmstead expanded its free delivery service to North Carolina homes within an hour’s drive of its West Charlotte distribution hub. The store opened in November.
▪ Food Lion, based in Salisbury, opened a store at 1620 Ashley Road in Charlotte in April. The company last year acquired 62 Bi-Lo and Harveys Supermarkets in the Carolinas and Georgia and has reopened stores in York and Chester, S.C. The company is holding open interviews June 16 at all of its more than 1,100 stores, the company said Wednesday.
▪ Publix, with plans to open at least five Charlotte locations, last month signed a lease at Arboretum, at the southeast corner of Providence and Pineville-Matthews Roads. The Florida-based grocer also plans to open stores at North Creek Village in Huntersville, 10 Tryon building in uptown, at the corner of Sharon and Colony roads in South Park and a rezoning petition was filed at 11525 Carmel Commons.
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 11:34 AM.