Aldi, Lidl, discount grocers grow on Long Island amid rising food costs
Aldi and other discount grocers are growing nationwide and on Long Island. Above, Aldi's East Northport site. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Walmart is the leading grocer nationwide, but not on Long Island, where traditional supermarkets, such as Stop & Shop and ShopRite, reign.
However, discounters like Aldi, Lidl and BJ’s Wholesale Club are expanding on Long Island and pulling in more customers who might have shopped at traditional supermarkets.
“We're still looking for several more opportunities in our negotiations for future expansions” on Long Island, said Chris Daniels, vice president of Aldi's Inc.’s South Windsor Division.
The German grocer opened two Long Island stores this year, bringing its total to 15, and has signed leases for three more stores that will open in 2025.
Discounters are the fastest-growing grocery segment nationwide for several reasons, including grocery prices that soared to 40-year highs in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading more middle-class shoppers to visit discount stores, retail experts said. Also, discounters have invested millions of dollars into remodeling their stores and expanding their selections of fresh foods, which has helped shift public perception of the stores as bottom-of-the-barrel last resorts.
“During slow economic times, more and more people give these other formats a try," said Jon Hauptman, founder of Price Dimensions, a Chicago-based pricing advisor for supermarket chains. "They’ll go to Aldi for the first time. And places like Aldi and Trader Joe’s have done such as good job of keeping people after they’ve tried them for the first time.”
Aldi, one of the fastest-growing U.S. grocers, with 2,457 stores, plans to invest more than $9 billion to add 800 locations by 2028. While the chain is attracting more high-income shoppers, its expansion on Long Island — where sales have grown by double digits annually from 2021 to 2023 — focuses on site factors like size, accessibility, signage and proximity to vibrant retailers rather than income demographics, Daniels said.
Another German discount grocer, Lidl, opened its 24th Long Island store in 2023, in Deer Park. Lidl entered the Long Island market in 2019, when the retailer’s U.S. arm finalized its purchase of 27 stores in New York and New Jersey from Bethpage-based Best Market, including all 24 on the Island, for an undisclosed price.
BJ’s Wholesale Club, which has 12 stores on Long Island, plans to open a store at The Shops on Broadway, formerly Broadway Commons, as part of the Hicksville mall’s $100 million redevelopment, which is slated for completion by winter 2027.
Trader Joe’s has 579 stores across the country, including seven on Long Island, and plans to open a store in Miller Place. The Monrovia, California-based retailer has declined to say when the store will open.
Like Aldi and Lidl, Trader Joe’s is in the limited-assortment grocery category, which includes stores that are smaller than traditional supermarkets and have lower prices because they carry a high percentage of their own private-label brands, Hauptman said. More than 80% of the products in Trader Joe’s are its own private-label brands.
North Babylon resident Dorothy Santana, 54, has done the vast majority of her grocery shopping at Aldi for 10 years but will go to specialty stores or ShopRite for ingredients for Latin American dishes, she said.
She is a fan of Aldi because of “the price, the convenience, the variety of options,” said Santana, a married mother of four children.
In most cases, she is satisfied with the quality of the store’s private-label brands, said Santana, who works as a culturally responsive educator.
Traditional supermarket chain Stop & Shop is the largest grocer on Long Island, but its dominance is slipping.
Among all stores that sell food on Long Island, including drugstores and warehouse clubs, Stop & Shop ranked first, with 18.2% of the market share as of March, down from 20.08% in 2021, according to the June report from Food Trade News, a Columbia, Maryland-based publication.
Aldi made the list for the first time last year, and ranked 19th this year, with 0.90% of the market share on Long Island.
Stop & Shop closed 32 underperforming stores in 2024, including four on Long Island. Among the grocer's 365 remaining stores are 46 on Long Island.
Stop & Shop maintains a strong market position on Long Island, despite more competition from discounters, the Quincy, Massachusetts-based chain said in a statement.
“We pride ourselves on our wide assortment and our commitment to providing a ‘one stop shop’ that makes it easy for local customers to get everything they need,” the retailer said.
Stop & Shop offers strong sales on more than 10,000 items across the store weekly, plus a Deal Lock program, which locks in lower prices for weeks at a time, the grocer said.
Also, next month, Stop & Shop’s Savings Stations kiosks will be added to Long Island stores, allowing customers to access weekly digital coupons by scanning Stop & Shop cards or entering their phone number, the grocer said.
King Kullen is still the largest family-owned grocery chain on Long Island, but its ranking among local grocery sellers has fallen from fifth to eighth since 2021, according to Food Trade News. The grocer accounted for 5.33% of the grocery market share on the Island as of March.
The grocer has closed three underperforming King Kullen stores, which are traditional supermarkets, and one Wild by Nature natural food store, since 2019.
Hauppauge-based King Kullen Grocery Co. has 26 King Kullens and four Wild by Nature stores on Long Island.
King Kullen declined to comment.
Walmart is the leading grocer nationwide, but not on Long Island, where traditional supermarkets, such as Stop & Shop and ShopRite, reign.
However, discounters like Aldi, Lidl and BJ’s Wholesale Club are expanding on Long Island and pulling in more customers who might have shopped at traditional supermarkets.
“We're still looking for several more opportunities in our negotiations for future expansions” on Long Island, said Chris Daniels, vice president of Aldi's Inc.’s South Windsor Division.
The German grocer opened two Long Island stores this year, bringing its total to 15, and has signed leases for three more stores that will open in 2025.
Discounters are the fastest-growing grocery segment nationwide for several reasons, including grocery prices that soared to 40-year highs in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading more middle-class shoppers to visit discount stores, retail experts said. Also, discounters have invested millions of dollars into remodeling their stores and expanding their selections of fresh foods, which has helped shift public perception of the stores as bottom-of-the-barrel last resorts.
“During slow economic times, more and more people give these other formats a try," said Jon Hauptman, founder of Price Dimensions, a Chicago-based pricing advisor for supermarket chains. "They’ll go to Aldi for the first time. And places like Aldi and Trader Joe’s have done such as good job of keeping people after they’ve tried them for the first time.”
Aldi, one of the fastest-growing U.S. grocers, with 2,457 stores, plans to invest more than $9 billion to add 800 locations by 2028. While the chain is attracting more high-income shoppers, its expansion on Long Island — where sales have grown by double digits annually from 2021 to 2023 — focuses on site factors like size, accessibility, signage and proximity to vibrant retailers rather than income demographics, Daniels said.
Another German discount grocer, Lidl, opened its 24th Long Island store in 2023, in Deer Park. Lidl entered the Long Island market in 2019, when the retailer’s U.S. arm finalized its purchase of 27 stores in New York and New Jersey from Bethpage-based Best Market, including all 24 on the Island, for an undisclosed price.
BJ’s Wholesale Club, which has 12 stores on Long Island, plans to open a store at The Shops on Broadway, formerly Broadway Commons, as part of the Hicksville mall’s $100 million redevelopment, which is slated for completion by winter 2027.
Trader Joe’s has 579 stores across the country, including seven on Long Island, and plans to open a store in Miller Place. The Monrovia, California-based retailer has declined to say when the store will open.
Like Aldi and Lidl, Trader Joe’s is in the limited-assortment grocery category, which includes stores that are smaller than traditional supermarkets and have lower prices because they carry a high percentage of their own private-label brands, Hauptman said. More than 80% of the products in Trader Joe’s are its own private-label brands.
North Babylon resident Dorothy Santana, 54, has done the vast majority of her grocery shopping at Aldi for 10 years but will go to specialty stores or ShopRite for ingredients for Latin American dishes, she said.
She is a fan of Aldi because of “the price, the convenience, the variety of options,” said Santana, a married mother of four children.
In most cases, she is satisfied with the quality of the store’s private-label brands, said Santana, who works as a culturally responsive educator.
Movement in the ranks
Traditional supermarket chain Stop & Shop is the largest grocer on Long Island, but its dominance is slipping.
Among all stores that sell food on Long Island, including drugstores and warehouse clubs, Stop & Shop ranked first, with 18.2% of the market share as of March, down from 20.08% in 2021, according to the June report from Food Trade News, a Columbia, Maryland-based publication.
Aldi made the list for the first time last year, and ranked 19th this year, with 0.90% of the market share on Long Island.
Stop & Shop closed 32 underperforming stores in 2024, including four on Long Island. Among the grocer's 365 remaining stores are 46 on Long Island.
Stop & Shop maintains a strong market position on Long Island, despite more competition from discounters, the Quincy, Massachusetts-based chain said in a statement.
“We pride ourselves on our wide assortment and our commitment to providing a ‘one stop shop’ that makes it easy for local customers to get everything they need,” the retailer said.
Stop & Shop offers strong sales on more than 10,000 items across the store weekly, plus a Deal Lock program, which locks in lower prices for weeks at a time, the grocer said.
Also, next month, Stop & Shop’s Savings Stations kiosks will be added to Long Island stores, allowing customers to access weekly digital coupons by scanning Stop & Shop cards or entering their phone number, the grocer said.
King Kullen is still the largest family-owned grocery chain on Long Island, but its ranking among local grocery sellers has fallen from fifth to eighth since 2021, according to Food Trade News. The grocer accounted for 5.33% of the grocery market share on the Island as of March.
The grocer has closed three underperforming King Kullen stores, which are traditional supermarkets, and one Wild by Nature natural food store, since 2019.
Hauppauge-based King Kullen Grocery Co. has 26 King Kullens and four Wild by Nature stores on Long Island.
King Kullen declined to comment.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
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