Lidl

Lidl's roots trace back to 1930, when Josef Schwarz became a partner in a German fruit wholesale business originally established by Anton Lidl. In 1973, under Josef's son Dieter Schwarz, the first modern Lidl discount store opened in Ludwigshafen, Germany — deliberately modeled after the Aldi concept, with a small footprint and limited product selection. The "Lidl" name has an unusual origin: Dieter didn't want to use "Schwarz-Markt" (which translates literally as "black market"), so he bought the naming rights from a retired schoolteacher named Ludwig Lidl for 1,000 German marks. Lidl expanded across Europe through the 1980s and 90s, and entered the U.S. market in 2017, opening its first stores in Virginia and the Carolinas. Today, Lidl US operates more than 185 stores across 9 states and Washington D.C., offering the same no-frills, private-label-heavy discount model that made it one of the largest grocery chains in Europe. Like Aldi, it is owned by the Schwarz Group and competes directly on price.