Top 5 stories from Grocery Dive

As Stop & Shop prepares to close dozens of stores in a bid to stabilize its sagging performance, the East Coast supermarket chain is also facing the steep challenge of restoring its former glow in the face of intense competition from other grocers, according to industry analysts.

Overcoming that hurdle will depend in good measure on the storied retailer’s ability to strengthen relationships with regional producers, expand its assortment of fresh foods and deepen ties with shoppers even as it focuses on boosting efficiency and cutting costs as one of several U.S. banners of Ahold Delhaize, these experts said.

“To competitors, they became highly vulnerable because they lost the local flavor,” which has allowed rivals to siphon customers and dilute the storied grocer’s brand, said Burt Flickinger III, managing director of supermarket consultancy Strategic Resource Group.

Flickinger pointed to chains like Roche Bros. and Big Y as examples of grocers that have been able to take advantage of Stop & Shop’s declining fortunes in recent years, noting that those chains have defined themselves in key departments like fresh meat, bakery, deli, seafood and produce while Stop & Shop has been less aggressive in managing those aspects of its stores.

Stop & Shop is also contending with stiff competition from Wegmans, Costco, BJ’s Wholesale Club and specialty grocers such as Trader Joe’s, Flickinger said.

Another issue for Stop & Shop is that the company has “a pretty vanilla, non-differentiated, traditional grocery offering” even as competitors have raised the bar on quality, service and selection, said Tom Furphy, a former Wegmans and Amazon executive who is now CEO and managing director of investment firm Consumer Equity Partners. That generic image has hindered Stop & Shop’s ability to build ties with consumers who have an unprecedented array of choices when they buy groceries and may no longer opt to frequent a store just because it is convenient, Furphy said.

“There’s not a trademark there, there’s not a signature value that Stop & Shop provides customers that they’re able to bank on,” said Furphy, noting that Stop & Shop is vying for customers alongside powerful regional brands like Stew Leonard’s and Wegmans as well as national chains like Whole Foods Market, all of which have raised shopper expectations in recent years.

Michael Infranco, assistant vice president of retail intelligence provider RetailStat, offered a similar view.

“They don’t have things that make you say, ‘Oh, they’ve got great stuff there,’” Infranco said about Stop & Shop. “They don’t have a very exciting bakery department. They don’t have out-of-the-ordinary meat [and] the perimeters of the store is hardly something that would make you say, ‘I’ve got to be at Stop & Shop.’”

John Clear, senior director in the consumer and retail group at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, said that while Stop & Shop’s plan to close 32 locations by the end of 2024 might help temporarily stem red ink, Stop & Shop would especially benefit from rethinking its overall value proposition and focusing more heavily on localized assortments as it looks to gain the momentum it will need to succeed over the long term.

“They’re not known for price, they’re not known for some crazy indoor experience [and] also not known for being local and regional,” said Clear. “The question is, what are they standing for?”

Standing up to ShopRite

Clear said Stop & Shop faces especially potent competition from ShopRite, which has a large presence in the New York City area, where Stop & Shop also operates a considerable number of stores. ShopRite stands out because stores under that banner are well organized and have a strong lineup of local and regional brands, he said.

Flickinger noted that while Stop & Shop’s nearly 400 stores in five states fall under single ownership, local ownership groups typically own and run ShopRite locations through arrangements with Wakefern Food Corp. — a community-focused distinction that he said makes a big difference in how the grocers operate.

Still, Stop & Shop has a strong base of loyal customers who come in on a daily basis, said Rachel Dalton, head of retail insights at Kantar.

Leaning into its local customer base could be the point of differentiation Stop & Shop needs to compete with not only stronger regional competitors, but also national banners and value players, Dalton said.  

In an emailed statement, a Stop & Shop spokesperson said the company is focused on “investments we are making in the Stop & Shop brand for future growth,” including lowering prices and remodeling stores. Ahold Delhaize executives have noted that the chain’s current renovation drive, which began in 2018 and has reached about half of the company’s locations, has helped boost sales in redone stores.

Stop & Shop had the largest share of visits in the first half of 2024 among grocery chains in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York, according to data Placer.ai provided to Grocery Dive.

While Stop & Shop dominates visit share by a wide margin in Rhode Island and Connecticut, the grocery chain is just 3 percentage points ahead of Market Basket’s visit share in Massachusetts and 1 percentage point ahead of Wegmans in New York, Placer.ai found. In New Jersey, Stop & Shop ranks as the third grocer by visit share (10%) behind Acme Markets (10%) and ShopRite (46%).

“We are continuing to invest to have a business fit for the future in an ever-changing market, and we feel we have a strong footing to do that,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that the company opened in June 2024 a newly built store in Boston that “is a great example of how we are taking a mindful approach to create stores that fit the needs of our growing and diverse neighborhoods.”

The new store, which replaced an older location, includes features like a bigger produce department with a greater variety of local foods, a large prepared foods department and a full hot bar, according to a press release.

Clear said that while updating a store can lead to a revenue bump, those kinds of changes can mask underlying problems that threaten a retailer’s longer-term prospects.

“One of the problems that I normally see with a strategy that’s founded on a remodel or rejuvenation program is that sometimes you get this kind of false signal that it’s having an impact on your sales, because those stores automatically get more attention while they’re being remodeled,” Clear said.

Furphy also cautioned that renovation-driven sales improvements can be misleading.

“Everybody likes a new, remodeled store. But frankly, that can only carry the day for so long,” said Furphy. “Ultimately, it comes down to quality. It comes down to a compelling assortment. It comes down to great service that people seek. And that takes a lot of consistent, hard work to deliver.”

Walmart is the world’s largest retailer by a large margin, but it isn’t taking its No. 1 position for granted. The company is engaged in a large-scale program to refresh hundreds of its locations around the U.S., part of a push by the mass retailer to modernize the overall shopping experience and reinforce its leading role in the grocery sector.

John David Rainey, Walmart’s CFO, told investors in February that the retailer will work on 650 remodels in the U.S. during fiscal year 2025, adding to the nearly 700 remodels it completed in 2023.

Walmart is ramping up its store renovations, which include adding products and modernizing layouts, at a time when discounters and mass retailers have been taking grocery market share from traditional supermarket operators. Walmart already commands roughly a quarter of the U.S. grocery market, according to Numerator data released summer 2023, and continues to report market share growth each quarter.

Grocery Dive reporters Catherine Douglas Moran and Sam Silverstein recently visited a Walmart supercenter in Germantown, Maryland, that was remodeled summer 2023 to examine the improvements and see what the retailer might have in store for future remodels.

Refreshing the store design

The approximately 150,000-square-foot store, at 20910 Frederick Road, sports wide aisles and has a simple, no-frills design that complements Walmart’s heavy emphasis on everyday low prices. The shiny concrete floors created a utilitarian aura that reflected the retailer’s image as a place where shoppers come to save money.

Situated just across a parking lot from a Target in a shopping center filled with big box stores, the updated store features new design elements, such as large department signs, wood-style paneling and decorative blue grills. The store has a bright, clean feel that helps it stand out from other Walmart locations.

Calling out low prices

Walmart has built its reputation on providing shoppers with value, and the Germantown store is designed to emphasize the retailer’s efforts to hold down costs for consumers from the moment you walk in. The grocery section sits just inside the front door and greets shoppers with a barrage of large “Everyday Low Price” signs.

On the day we stopped by, the store was offering limes for 25 cents each, cucumbers for 98 cents apiece and loaves of bread for $1 — a “rollback” from $1.47. A sign above a spacious grab-and-go case, meanwhile, reminded shoppers to “Spend a little. Get a lot.”

Making grocery and foodservice more appetizing

The newly redone Walmart offers a broad range of meal solutions, from grab-and-go to made-to-order to ingredients for cooking. The foodservice options seem like a move to strengthen Walmart’s competitive edge against supermarkets, which have made a point of trying to siphon customers’ meal dollars from restaurants.

The store’s heavy focus on groceries is a key factor differentiating it from the nearby Target, where general merchandise is front and center and groceries are off to the side. The retailers’ diverging approaches suggest that as Walmart retools its stores, it wants shoppers to see it as a grocery store that also sells other goods, while Target sees its grocery selection more as an add-on to its assortment of coats, electronics and other products.

At the front of the store are a Grab & Go section with prepackaged meal solutions and a Charleys Cheesesteaks restaurant, which offers cheesesteaks, wings, shakes and sides like fries and has a seating area.

An eye on security and loss

At the entrance, automatic gates greet customers but will make a beeping sound if customers try to exit that way. As an added loss-prevention measure, workers stationed at the doors during our visit were checking some customers’ receipts as they left.

In the personal care section, there’s a semicircular area with a manned checkout counter where shoppers who want to buy goods from that department have to pay for those products. Some items, like perfume, hair color, razors and shower cream, were secured behind glass doors with signs on the cases noting that shoppers can press a button to call an associate for assistance.

The store’s front end includes multiple self-checkout stations that bookend staffed payment lanes. Large video monitors remind customers that security cameras are monitoring them.

Elevating non-food categories

The supercenter includes a garden department like at Home Depot, a sports area with fishing gear like at Dick’s Sporting Goods and large clothing and home goods departments like at Target.

The store’s clothing and home goods departments both have floor displays similar to those you might see at an Ikea or Macy’s. The clothing department features eye-catching signage for Walmart’s fashion brand Free Assembly along with mannequin displays.

Customers can also find a vision center, auto care center, pharmacy and wireless services, making the store a one-stop-shop for a variety of needs. Notably, the store doesn’t have an in-store pickup counter, although it does have plenty of parking spaces reserved for curbside pickup customers.

As consumer reliance on private label continues to grow, grocers may want to look at what each generation frequently buys in order to better meet their needs.

Overall, household staples make up the top categories where consumers seek out private label options, with more than half the U.S. buying private brand canned goods, beverages, dairy, paper products and bread and bakery, according to research from consulting firm PDG Insights.

More consumers are also choosing their retailer based on the quality and variety of their private label offerings, Diana Sheehan, principal and CEO of PDG Insights, who authored a blog post about the findings, said in an interview.

But penetration of top private label categories varies dramatically with age, according to Sheehan.   

PDG’s findings show that older shoppers are buying more private label goods than younger consumers, with consumers aged 35 to 54 and aged 55 and older purchasing private label items across an average of 8.9 and 8.4 categories, respectively. Consumers aged 18 to 35 purchase private label from an average of 7.3 categories. 

Generation X is embracing private label while millennials are just beginning to seek out grocers’ brand items consistently, Sheehan said, noting that the stigma around private label is dissipating as the quality of the goods continues to improve. 

Beverages are the top private label category sought out by shoppers under 34, with 64% of that customer base seeking out those items. Other top categories from the age group include baking ingredients, breakfast cereals, dairy products and frozen foods, which collectively saw penetration below 55%.

The 35 to 54 age group and the 55 and older groups, which are primarily made up of consumers shopping for households, are frequently buying private label breakfast cereal, frozen foods, snack foods and cleaning supplies. 

Sheehan added that these findings are most likely due to the fact that these age groups consist of larger households with children — and households with children buy more private label.

As purchasing frequency for private label increases with age, so does the perception that private label provides good value, Sheehan found. Eighty-eight percent of shoppers 55 and older, for example, agree with the statement, “Private label provides a good value,” compared to 75% of consumers in the 18 to 34 age group, PDG’s research found.

“For retailers and manufacturers, understanding the demographics of consumers expecting innovation can help them build strategies around product categories and segments where they should prioritize their new product pipeline,” Sheean wrote in a second blog post.

As grocers look to ramp up retail media capabilities, Albertsons has been working over the past few years to fashion itself as a leader in the space. Kristi Argyilan, Albertsons Media Collective’s senior vice president, has been at the forefront of these advancements and a driving force for some of Albertsons’ most pivotal retail media moves. 

Argyilan has served as the retail media arm’s SVP for the past three years and helped the grocer move its retail media network in-house in late 2021. Since then, Albertsons Media Collective has focused on growth and innovation, Argyilan said, partnering with companies that allow the grocer to experiment with new technologies and capabilities. 

Standardization has also been a priority for Albertsons, Argyilan said, as the grocer’s retail media network works to improve measurement industry-wide. In September 2023, Albertsons Media Collective announced that the Interactive Advertising Bureau would assume the retail media standardization framework the grocer published that summer.

“As [retail media] has exploded as a priority, especially with cookies coming out of the market, the demands of retail media are escalating as well,” Argyilan said. “And so our need to standardize, to become easier as a media sector to engage with, is a real important piece and one of the things that we’ve been leaning into.”

Argyilan spoke with Grocery Dive on Albertsons Media Collective’s retail media priorities and where the industry stands today.  

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

GROCERY DIVE: How does Albertsons approach new retail media initiatives and projects? 

KRISTI ARGYILAN: The one thing that we always ask of ourselves is, “Who is it in service of?” And, from my perspective, it needs to be in service of the clients. So then we decide the best way to bring what we have to market. Does it require another platform users need to click into? Or are advertisers asking that it be some kind of service or platform they’re already using? 

We do find that we partner more than we build, but there are some very specific things that we build ourselves — like our data platforms. Because the whole company operates off of the data that we have, having that be internally run and built for our purposes is naturally the way we do that. 

Consolidation is becoming vital for smaller and regional grocers expanding into the retail media space. Is Albertsons doing any consolidation work to better connect banners? 

We haven’t yet, but I get asked that question, especially given how we already operate 14 to 20 different brands. And we certainly have consolidated all of those so that we can execute as close to nationally as our store footprint and our customer footprint will allow us to.

But there is this constant conversation about what I’ll call a consortium. You have to quickly assess privacy when you’re thinking about things that we would white label for the market. And there may be tools and technology that we could white label. But when it gets to the data piece, that’s where it gets really tricky for lots of really good reasons when you consider how privacy laws work, and most importantly, what our customers are asking and permissioning us to do. 

Where is Albertsons Media Collective leveraging AI right now? What are Albertsons’ future plans for it? 

The primary use that we’re using it for right now is what we call “the execution.” If you think of the impact of AI on media planning and buying, it’s actually quite exciting.

There’s a lot of manual labor media planning and buying, especially when you’re talking about digital and the need to optimize. And the more cycles of optimization you can do the better the performances. And at some point, humans have to sleep and machines don’t, so our ability to keep up and push through high-volume campaign planning and execution and optimization is a real plus for us.

In terms of generating multiple versions of creative assets, AI is a huge plus for us as well because, along with optimizing media itself, it’s optimizing the creative executions. And to have multiple versions available that, again, machines can do more fluidly than humans can, it all just leads to stronger performance across the board. 

What we’re all still trying to figure out is how AI helps with content, specifically as we push into television and Connected TV (CTV). For the most part with video, you’ll tend to get a produced video asset from the brand, but then if you want to make it commerce enabled, there’s more that you add to it. And I think the real questions are “Does AI help with that simple versioning?” and “How do we set up the creative process to be able to quickly adapt for commerce use?”

Where does Albertsons stand with in-store retail media?

We are right in the middle of, “What is this thing and how do we capitalize on it?”

The one thing that is really missing is standardization for in-store retail media. So our stores have multiple vendors who have individual ad platforms, but no one place where it’s all centralized and simple to execute. So how do we do fuel pump ads versus the paper tags on the shelves versus the digital signs in the deli section? Those are all different suppliers. 

Our ability to serve ads from one place and then measure the stores as a media channel is widely complicated and that’s what we are all wrestling with right now as an industry. 

The potential is there, but the ability to execute at scale is still the piece to be solved — I think we’ll have that solved soon. 

What would you like to see Albertsons Media Collective pursue in the future?

So we’re currently operating like a media company, but is that the only thing that we should be or is there more opportunity in how we bring our audiences to market, how we bring measurement to market? And how do we bring some of the technology we’ve built in service of retail media to market? 

I am also super excited because I actually think retail media can make some more traditional channels like CTV and linear TV far more performant than they’ve been in the past. If you think of using our audiences and then show that it drove sales, it’s a very different metric than where television has been, which has been impressions and impressions served. 

Is there anything right now that you think suppliers and advertisers want from grocers that they aren’t currently getting? 

Upper funnel. How do we do more brand and awareness-building activities? Our measurement is all about lower funnel, last click-to-drive purchase. But more and more there’s demand for understanding how retail media works more on the brand side. 

There is an approach to this and one of the things that Albertsons is working on is who to integrate into some of the marketing mix modeling that our bigger brands and clients are using right now so that they can start to understand the impact of retail media. I think what you have to do though in order to move further up the funnel is you have to have the right kind of content, and most of our content right now is in its simplest form of “price and item” that isn’t necessarily known as being a brand builder.

When Lidl prepared to enter the grocery industry in the United States back in 2015, the German retail powerhouse seemed to have everything going for it.

Renowned across Europe for the potent mix of low prices and high-quality goods that defines its thousands of colorful stores, Lidl arrived stateside with deep pockets, a highly developed private label strategy and a disciplined focus on efficiently running a complex business in a highly competitive environment. 

But instead of steadily growing its U.S. footprint as it had originally intended, Lidl US has moved ahead in fits and starts, prompting questions about why its value-focused business model has trouble gaining traction on American soil.

Lidl’s U.S. store fleet so far comprises only about 170 stores in nine states and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, German archrival Aldi, which entered the U.S. in 1976, has accelerated its growth and now has almost 2,400 stores stateside.

While Aldi has continued to ramp up its growth, Lidl US has laid off hundreds of corporate workers during the past two years and closed a number of stores.

“They’ve given up so much opportunity over the past few years between the pandemic, people being out of work, looking for value” and dealing with inflation, Michael Infranco, assistant vice president of retail intelligence provider RetailStat, said about Lidl’s journey in the U.S. “These guys seem to have missed that boat, so they’re going to have to hitch their ride on another one.”

That time could be now, with throngs of shoppers across income levels flocking to discounters and mass retailers in search of more affordable grocery options. 

Lidl US has new changes underway, including a broad update of its assortment, as it looks to adapt its model to better suit the U.S. consumer, Chief Customer Officer Frank Kerr said.

Focusing on ‘untapped potential’

After moving through several CEOs during its first years in this country, Lidl US last summer appointed its first American CEO, Joel Rampoldt, a former consultant who is serving as the company’s fifth chief executive.

In March, the company brought on a team of four new senior executives, including a new chief commercial officer and Kerr, its first chief customer officer.

Kerr acknowledged in an interview that Lidl is facing a considerable learning curve as it adapts to the U.S. market and said the company is closely examining its next moves in the U.S., a region that “is really untapped potential for us.”

Lidl sees itself as able to simultaneously meet the needs of shoppers looking for a limited assortment discounter or a traditional supermarket, Kerr said.

“We really see the opportunity to disrupt any market that we go in because quite frankly, we can appeal to a various amount of demographics and customers and quite frankly … really deliver on the value proposition, despite where their normal shop may be prior to us entering those markets,” Kerr said.

Kerr was a member of the team of executives that founded Lidl’s U.S. unit. He spent time working for the grocer in Germany and the U.K. ahead of the debut of its first U.S. stores in 2017. Kerr then left Lidl for Save A Lot in 2018, where he served as a regional director and later vice president of retail operations and wholesale sales before moving to Lidl International in 2022.

Lidl is developing a broad update to its assortment as it works to connect more deeply with shoppers in the U.S. Changes the company is working on include the introduction of freshly baked bagels to its signature in-store bakeries as well as a meat department overhaul linked to Independence Day.

Kerr said Lidl takes particular pride in its low-cost baked goods, pointing to its 79-cent baked-in-store croissants as an example of how it hopes to strengthen its relationships with U.S. shoppers.

Lidl’s dual focus on low prices and fresh food is a clear differentiator as it tries to build a stronger presence in the U.S., particularly among discounters, which tend not to put as much emphasis on fresh merchandise, said John Clear, senior director in the consumer and retail group at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal and a former Lidl executive.

Updated merchandising

Lidl is also tweaking how it merchandises products to account for the ways U.S. grocery shoppers stand apart from their European counterparts, Kerr said, noting that even a difference like the fact that U.S. consumers tend to have larger freezers is prompting Lidl to make adjustments.

“We’ve really had to take a deep dive in terms of how we adjust our pack sizes, what we have from a total assortment,” he said.

Lidl US also recently introduced garden centers at about 75 stores, with the final batch opening in late May 2024. The centers helped drive strong Mother’s Day plant and flower sales for Lidl, according to Kerr.

“They really value that discovery component, and something like the garden centers just amplifies that,” Kerr said. 

Kerr added that while Lidl US will make minor adjustments to what its stores offer to reflect local tastes, the retailer looks, whenever possible, to standardize its operations to take advantage of economies of scale.

“It’s extremely important that we focus on our organization’s DNA, which is leveraged through vertical integration and efficiency that we’re able to drive throughout our entire system, ultimately to save costs for the customer,” he said.

Kerr added that while Lidl is a private label-focused discounter, the company believes that its value proposition goes well beyond simply offering low prices and a high-quality assortment to providing a convenient shopping experience.

“Shopper views of value have really shifted. It’s not just the simple price and quality comparison,” he said. “There’s a much more complex matrix that goes into that equation of value.”

That approach reflects Lidl’s strategy in its home market of Germany, where the company has had to find ways to stand out against Aldi, which “still has the position of the image of the price leader,” said Sebastian Rennack, an international retail analyst who runs Aletos Retail Advisory.

“If you put them next to each other, I would say that Lidl is better in communicating quality while trying to keep up with Aldi when it comes to price,” Rennack said.

Kerr added that he intends to focus people’s attention on how its stores allow for quick shopping. “From our recent studies that we've done across our store, we know that our customers can do a full shop with us across our store in 17 minutes less than what they can do at our competition,” he said.

Lidl is also increasingly turning to its loyalty program, myLidl, to strengthen its relationships with U.S. shoppers through more personalized recommendations and recipe suggestions based on items people place in their carts, according to Kerr.

Tackling barriers to entry

While Lidl’s approach to selling groceries has the potential to resonate on a large scale with U.S. consumers, the company is facing multiple challenges as it tries to steady itself in this country, according to Clear.

Those obstacles include high costs in their most promising markets, the perception among suppliers that Lidl is a startup and comparisons with Aldi, he said.

Clear noted that Lidl has performed quite well in regions like the New York City and Washington, D.C., areas where it has clusters of stores, but said high real estate costs in those markets are impeding the company’s growth. In addition, while costs are lower in other areas where Lidl also has a presence, such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, convincing shoppers in those areas to try an unfamiliar brand can be more difficult than further north, he said.

Lidl has built many of its U.S. stores “in areas where people are probably a little more skeptical of international brands coming into their space and they’re very heavily connected to legacy U.S. brands,” Clear said, pointing to The Fresh Market, Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods and Food Lion as examples.

“The cheaper real estate to acquire is in the markets where it’s tougher to convince customers to shop with you more regularly,” Clear said.

Infranco pointed out that Lidl has been stymied by placing stores across multiple regions instead of building its brand in a few specific areas.

“They spread themselves out too thin,” Infranco said. “They weren’t able to focus all their energies on building a name in an area that made people say, ‘Hey, this is great stuff.’”

To remedy that, Infranco suggested Lidl should step up its efforts to grow in areas — particularly suburban ones — where it has already put down roots rather than try to enter new markets.

Kerr declined to provide specific details about Lidl’s plans to open new stores or remake its store fleet.

“We see a tremendous opportunity in a lot of our core markets across the East Coast,” which include the New York City, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., areas, Kerr said. “But right now, we want to deliver on everything our customer expects from us when they walk into our stores.”

Lidl most recently debuted a new U.S. store on June 12, 2024, when it opened a location in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

In addition to coming up with a strategy for choosing optimal store locations, Lidl has to convince suppliers in the United States that it has the staying power to ultimately have a significant impact stateside, according to Clear. 

“For a lot of U.S. vendors, they would look at it and say, ‘It’s great that you’ve got all these plans and you want to be a thousand-store retail chain, but at the moment you have 170, which puts you kind of in our small regional player book, which means you get small, regional player attention,’” said Clear, who formerly served as a buyer for Lidl US.

Compounding those issues is Lidl’s position operating in the shadows of Aldi in the U.S., where the companies are often thought of together even though they have had starkly different trajectories, Clear said. 

Lidl’s growth in terms of its number of stores and sales might appear small compared with the growth Aldi has achieved in the U.S., but given that Lidl has been operating in this country for a far shorter period, directly comparing the two chains can be a stretch, he noted.

“They have extra pressure to be a game-changing market disruptor and change the whole face of grocery retail, which probably was never realistic in the first place,” Clear said. There’s “a very continuous conversation about the comparative performances between Aldi and Lidl in Germany, which creates pressure on U.S. leadership.”

While Lidl and Aldi are both discounters, Lidl appeals to U.S. shoppers with a higher median household income than Aldi does, data from Placer.ai indicates.

Rennack said a lot is riding on Lidl’s ability to succeed in the U.S. — and in standing up to Aldi — in part because Lidl’s operations in the multiple countries where it does business help support one another.

“Even if from an operations point of view it doesn’t make sense for Lidl to stay in the U.S.,” the company cannot afford to leave, he said.