HOWELL - Lidl will close its grocery store on Route 9 in Howell later this month as it prepares a new store in Freehold Township at Freehold Raceway Mall.
The store, which opened in February 2020 in a spot on Route 9 at Friendship Road that was previously Best Buy, will close on July 16, a Lidl spokesperson told What's Going There on Friday.
"After a thorough review of the performance of our store network, we made the difficult decision to close the store in Howell on July 16," the spokesperson said.
"This was an underperforming location, and we made the strategic decision to close this location so we can focus on the locations that are closer and more convenient to more of our customers and where we are seeing significant growth."
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Store employees are being offered positions at other stores in the area. "We appreciate the contributions team members in Howell have made and want them to be part of our growing network of stores," the spokesperson said.
The German discount grocer is in the midst of preparing a new store in Freehold Township at Freehold Raceway Mall. It will open a 30,725-square-foot grocery store on Trotters Way next to Ashley Furniture.
It has not set an opening date. "Work is progressing on the Freehold store and it’s too early to give a specific timeframe for the opening," the spokesperson said. "We look forward to continuing our New Jersey expansion."
In Monmouth and Ocean counties, Lidl has stores in Hazlet, Eatontown, Brick and Lacey. It also has Central Jersey stores in North Brunswick and Woodbridge with others on the way in East Brunswick and Scotch Plains.
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David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for 25 years. He writes APP.com's What's Going There and Press on Your Side columns and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com. Please sign up for his weekly newsletter and join his What's Going There page on Facebook for updates.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lidl closing Howell supermarket three years after replacing Best Buy