I can't imagine the Lidl's in Astoria being a patch on its European cousins. The UK Lidls which I know well had an interesting and sometimes surprisingly good wine and spirits section-many no-name brands but often winners in blind tastings. Their cheese section was very good, croissants were baked in-store ovens so they were fresh and their sweet smell would waft through the store. They had a full range of Spanish, German, and Italian ham along with Scottish smoked salmon, smoked mackerel,et al. Of course, the prices were consistently discounted so they were much cheaper than US equivalents. Everything else was proprietary brands-they cloned everything Initially, the first Lidls were seen as downmarket no-frills places for shoppers only interested in bargain basement produce but because Lidls managed to provide quality and budget pricing they pretty rapidly became a major and influential player in the supermarket world. Their check-out system btw was as Trader Joe's one long line for a free register No friendly guidance however just a very long line.
I would add that Lidl can be found right across Europe and they are all the same so that going to the Lisbon Lidl feels like your local supermarket back home. I hope this marketing concept will apply to the Astoria store although I am not sure that car-less, as I am even a Lidl, would tempt me to go to the difficult to reach Astoria store more than once.
