Affordable Grocery Chain Lidl To Expand Into Parsippany

PARSIPPANY, NJ — A new grocery store may be moving into the Lake Hiawatha neighborhood, replacing the family-operated Super Foodtown in the near future.

Lidl, the European grocery giant that has expanded in the United States over the last few years, has purchased the Super Foodtown property on North Beverwyck Road.

In 2021, the Parsippany Planning Board approved an application from the supermarket chain Lidl for a proposed new supermarket on the site currently occupied by the 30,600-square-foot, family-run Super Foodtown.

According to property records, Lidl US Operations LLC purchased the building from the property's owner, Holly Gardens LLC, who leases it to Super Foodtown. The sale was completed in March 2022 and the site was purchased for nearly $7 million.

Although the purchase is complete and Lidl now owns the building, Roberto Laracca, who runs the store as a family business within the Foodtown cooperative grocery chain, told Patch that Foodtown would still be open for roughly another year.

The purchase of the building was also confirmed by Laracca.

Hiawatha Pharmacy, which operated for about a decade within Super Foodtown, officially closed in 2021, transferring all prescription records to the Rite Aid on 480 North Beverwyck Road, Lake Hiawatha.

The approval of the Lidl site plans was met with anger from some local residents who expressed their opposition to the chain expanding into the community.

Lidl's attorney, John Wyciskala, previously stated that while the company was aware of petitions opposing the redevelopment, the company was optimistic about the future of the site and believed that North Beverwyck Road was a great place to expand the company.

"My client is looking forward to becoming a member of this community and to redevelop this site," Wyciskala said.

The company didn't immediately respond to messages asking about a potential timeline for future construction.

Lidl is a German supermarket chain that specializes in low-cost items. Josef Schwarz founded the company in 1930, but the first discount store opened in 1973. The first Lidl store opened in the United States in 2017, and the number of supermarkets has since grown to more than 170.