Former Site Of Red Oak Diner In Hazlet Demolished For Supermarket

HAZLET, NJ - Construction crews today demolished the old Red Oak Diner on Route 35 to make way for a new German supermarket that already has plans for two more supermarkets at the Jersey Shore.

"It is a landmark that I am sorry to see go but it is progress for Hazlet," Mayor Susan M. Kiley told the Asbury Park Press. The new supermarket is Lidl and the company already has announced plans to build a 35,962-square-foot $3.6 million store on the site.

"We are excited to open our first stores in the United States in a few short weeks," Lidl President and Chief Executive Officer Brendan Proctor said in a statement in Business Insider. "When customers shop at Lidl, they will experience less complexity, lower prices, better choices and greater confidence.

According to the business website, Lidl can offer some products at half the prices of stores such as Trader's Joe, Whole Foods and others.

The company has said its stores would feature a "manageable, easy-to-shop layout of 20,000 square feet with only six aisles." That means the stores would be about a quarter of the size of a traditional supermarket.

Lidl says 90% of the products sold in its stores would be private-label brands, which it says are free from synthetic colors, trans fats and added MSG. The stores would have bakeries at the entrances and carry an assortment of organic and gluten-free items, including organic fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy and packaged food items, Lidl said.

Overseas, Lidl is known for low prices and it is most closely associated with the discount grocer Aldi, which is also based in Germany. But its research has discovered that Americans do not embrace discount food stores, they said.

Unlike Aldi, the Lidl would be a hybrid similar to Trader Joe's or Harris Teeter but closer to a Trader Joe's. "We will sell high-end brands, quality not quantity, best products only," according to a presentation by company officials in Maryland.

Locally sourced products, wine and coffee will be focuses of the U.S. stores, according to the presentation. Like Aldi, customers will have to bag their own purchases with bags they bring with them. Lidl also sells furniture and clothing.

New market construction could begin in 2018. Photograph by Gustavo Martinez Contreras/Associated Press.