Saturday, July 19, 2025

Bethesda Lidl store touts grand opening, "Special Guests" (Photos)


Lidl
has posted new banners at its downtown Bethesda store at 7625 Old Georgetown Road at Bethesda Place, touting its grand opening on July 30, 2025. New signs have also been posted inside the store, in the bakery department. "SPECIAL GUESTS," they read - but they're not for VIPs attending the grand opening. Rather, they are for the chain's "Special Guests" bakery promotion. The reserved shelves below the sign will display limited-time-only baked goods that are introduced every two weeks, and will be sold for four weeks only.




18 comments:

Anonymous said...

All right ~ only a year-and-a-half after the "opening soon" sign was first posted! Just sayin'

Anonymous said...

Going to be Interesting to see how the Lower-Middle Class to Middle Class Geared Lidl Grocery Store does in Upper-Middle Class Bethesda……….

Anonymous said...

@950p: I think this is the wrong way to look at it. LIDL has correctly assessed that Bethesda is on its way down demographic-wise and has adeptly positioned itself to capture the market of not only the current lower-class but also all the future ones coming to the area. Whether or not this they're successful may depend on how much they pay in rent and labor and how much, if any, they're willing to increase their prices compared to other LIDLs short-term as Bethesda has not yet finished descending.

Anonymous said...

Just watch the crime sprees here

Robert Dyer said...

6:19: Correct. For example, many of the closest potential customers in the newer apartment buildings are not actual tenants paying the full, advertised rent, but are instead contract workers or college/grad students being brought in to fill the many vacant units. Along with illegal airbnb short-term guests. Watch for the rolling luggage being pulled behind "tenants" as they enter the lobby. Whoops!

Anonymous said...

Someone should commission a broad survey of gum on the sidewalks! Sounds loony, eh? I'm all over walking and riding, there is no doubt in my mind that the amount of gum spatonto the sidewalks directly correlates with neighborhood degradation.

By my reckoning, the amount of sidewalk gum is steadily increasing in key places in Bethesda....

Anonymous said...

" Along with illegal airbnb short-term guests. " How would they be illegal? If they are on AirBnB there is a mechanism built in whereby the county should be receiving the tourist tax automatically, and that triggers notification of the unit which triggers inspection, etc. Maybe you mean illegal STR, advertised on facebook, etc.? There's no way around the reporting if you are legitimately on AirBnB

Anonymous said...

With close access to the metro: yup

Anonymous said...

What Robert is referring to is that most of the condos in downtown Bethesda ban short-term rentals in the condo bylaws yet some owners do it anyway.

Anonymous said...

Notice any high crime areas there is gum all over!

Robert Dyer said...

2:49: Apartment buildings in Montgomery County are not allowed to short-term rent units a la Airbnb or otherwise. Licenses for this purpose are only available to the owners of their own primary residences. Rental apartment buildings have to seek a change of use to "hotel" for this purpose. Some buildings, such as The Elm, have taken this legitimate route. Most have not.

Anonymous said...

9:50 PM My doctor who works in Bethesda and lives in Potomac is pretty psyched about the Lidl opening here. It's closer to him than the other ones he shops at. He's not nouveau riche like so many newer Bethesdans, so maybe that's why he likes good deals?

Anonymous said...

2:33 PM Come on, a year and a half is pretty fast here for a place to open after posting a Coming Soon sign. It's like the converse of the Going Out of Business signs that some places have up for years before abruptly closing at last.

Anonymous said...

2:49 AM They are illegal in any building where the tenants may not sublet. Air BnB does nothing to ensure its clients are legally allowed to rent unless the police get involved. We had a neighbor who illegally subleased both her entire unit when she was away and just the back room when she was at home, over 500 times according to her Air BnB listing. The landlord was an idiot who believed her when she claimed she simply had lots of friends coming to visit. He certainly wasn't happy when her "friends" brought in bedbugs.

Anonymous said...

Lidl will do very well in Bethesda. It is a vastly superior store to Aldi. Their bakery items will put some of the other bakeries in Bethesda out of business because their baked goods are not like supermarket baked goods. They are like the products in real bakeries but at much lower prices. Their produce is also much metter that what is found at Aldi. The Lidl at Wisconsin Ave & Upton in NW DC is doing very well, as is the Lidl in McLean. Both are in upscale areas.

Anonymous said...

Went to Lidl in McLean and it was so dirty... The floors had trash everywhere... It was so unorganized and filthy...

Anonymous said...

Let's hope the Bethesda location can keep up! Different crowd here, so one can only hope!

Anonymous said...

Well the NEW Bethesda Lidl Location is Super Clean. I hope it stays that way !!