In late June, the German-based Lidl celebrated the opening of two new U.S. stores in Washington, D.C., and Greensboro, N.C. But now, the company said it will close five locations due to poor financial performance, according to reporting from a number of media outlets.
Stores in Thomasville, N.C.; Florence, S.C.; Charlottesville, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Howell, N.J., will cease operations.
Lidl had not responded to a request for comment at time of publication.
Lidl opened its first store in the U.S. in 2017. This past February, the discount retailer announced it was laying off around 200 employees at its U.S. headquarters in Arlington, Va.
The development of new stores, however, continues. Lidl has plans to build a 33,000-square-foot store in a mixed-use property in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. There also are plans for a new distribution center in Philadelphia.
Lidl currently has close to 200 store locations in the U.S., which is a much lighter footprint than competitor Aldi. Aldi USA is in the midst of opening 120 stores and will have more than 2,400 locations nationwide when 2023 comes to a close.
