Special Report: LIDL - Brooklyn, NY (Williamsburg)

LIDL

Opened: August 26, 2026

Owner: Schwarz Group

Previous Tenants: none; Key Food (1970s-2021) previously on site

Cooperative: none

Location: 573 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY

Photographed: September 4, 2026

LIDL continues to expand in and around New York City, but as the company continues to figure out its position in the US market, they've continued to tweak the format. The latest updates are on display here in Brooklyn, where a new-build LIDL replaced a longtime Key Food on the same property.

This store is smaller than some of LIDL's suburban locations but actually on the large side for urban Williamsburg, at around 27,000 square feet. We're across the neighborhood from a new Lincoln Market, but just a couple blocks over from a small-format Whole Foods. Also, a CTown, a Bravo, two Foodtowns, a Brooklyn Harvest Market, and a Sunac Natural Market are all within a few blocks, so there are lots of other supermarkets -- but no other discounters in the immediate area.

Inside, LIDL has recently debuted a new decor package (compare this to the Park Slope store, which is about three miles away and opened at the end of last year, also replacing a demolished Key Food).

Bakery and produce are in the first aisle on the right side with packaged deli and cheese behind that, and meat lines the rest of the back wall. Frozen and dairy are on the left side in the last aisle, and a few short aisles are in the middle with nonfoods towards the back. It's a somewhat awkward layout, but that's just a result of the fact that it's jammed into the ground floor of this new development building.

In addition to the new decor, they seem to have dropped the "Midl of Lidl" branding for the nonfoods. By my count, LIDL has used four different decor packages in their time in the US -- most recently, this one; previously, the one I linked above in Park Slope; then before that, this one; and the original one, which appears to have only been used in new-build locations in the early days.

This is definitely still in its opening phase, as LIDLs rarely last this orderly after the first few months of business. Still, in general, I find that LIDL tends to maintain their stores a bit better than ALDI, their most direct competitor.