Lidl to open 2nd Washington, D.C., location this month

Lidl US will open its second store in the nation’s capital this month.

The hard discount grocer announced this week that its 27,000-square-foot location will open June 28, inside the large D.C. USA shopping complex at 3100 14th St. NW, in Columbia Heights, a neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C.

The new store will employ close to 50 workers, with starting pay of $19 an hour and comprehensive benefits for all employees, including health care, Lidl said.

Lidl U.S., the Arlington, Virginia-based division of Germany’s Schwarz Group, opened its first Washington, D.C., store last year in the Skyland Town Center in southeast D.C.

“Our community was incredibly excited to welcome the District’s first Lidl to Ward 7 last year, and now we are excited to welcome our second Lidl to Ward 1,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser in a statement. “Our focus has been—and continues to be—on increasing access to fresh, healthy and affordable groceries, and that is what Lidl is helping us do. With this opening, we celebrate more food options and more jobs for D.C. residents.”

Looking to broaden its brick-and-mortar store count on the East Coast, last month the hard discounter announced its plans for a 23,000-square-foot grocery store at 335 Eighth Ave. in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan.

“We look forward to continuing our expansion in New York City and opening even more stores in the future, bringing our unique value proposition to additional areas of the city where New Yorkers for far too long have had to put up with high grocery prices,” said Or Raitses, senior director of real estate for Lidl’s Northern Region, in a statement.

Lidl now operates more than 170 stores across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.