A low-rise building with a huge parking lot and a plastic waste shed, where shopping trolleys are waiting for potential pushers: That is how we know Lidl branches. This will change, and not just because the discounter has announced in the future it will start building supermarkets upon which apartments will be built. Now the company has something to announce again. In the coming months, the first two small branches of Lidl in Munich are scheduled to open: in the Zweibrückenstraße in the former McDonald's on 25 February and at the end of April at Leopoldstraße 21.
There is not much known yet about the two new Mini-Lidls. The company promises a revised concept, adapted to downtown locations, that actually represents a departure from the former location policies of the discounter. So far, the in-house criteria for the total area was 3000 square meters, with on average, about 860 square meters of sales area for each Lidl market. In recent years, there has been a trend towards ever larger branches. The newly planned market on the Tübinger Straße -south of the Heimeranplatz- will even have a sales area of 1700 square meters.
However, such surface areas are now a rare commodity in the coveted inner city locations. Therefore, the discounters are now increasingly found on retail space in existing buildings. This requires at least 600 square meters. The two new stores that are now planned cover only about 500 square meters of retail space. Small branches, so to speak. In addition to all this, they should come along with a completely revised concept in order to attract more and new customers.
