Source Diário de Notícias 17/11/2007
Following yesterdays article about the Madeira’s hypermarket dominance in household shopping, it came as a bit of a surprise to read in todays D de N, that LIDL, the massive German supermarket chain with over 5,000 European stores has been trying for some years to open 7 stores (over 8,000 sq metres in total) on Madeira, without success. The plans have been blocked by the government and it seems the fight is pretty much over.
For those of you not familiar with LIDL, they are a discount supermarket that sell a much wider range of products beyond food and household items. They used to undercut the prices of the big high street names in the UK, but its not clear if that is still the case, but almost certainly they would give the 3 big here a run for their money. Lesson learned … you can discount your goods as much as you want, but you cannot discount the necessary ‘palm greasing’ necessary to convince a government that your plan is a winner.
What a shame!
We were looking forward to our usual visits to
Lydls that we do in the UK, Spain and France.
It's a great store!
–visitor
Lidl do not “undercut” other supermarkets. They just offer very good value for very good quality products. Madeira government is not giving its residents the opportunities enjoyed in the rest of Europe to reduce their household bills. Competition is always good!
I would very much appreciate if we had Lidl in Funchal. Good product and quality for good prices.
I would very much appreciate ,if Lidl would open a store in Funchal.
I would love to see the stranglehold on competition Brocken in Madeira and this supermarket would be fantastic