Retailer plans to open 20 U.S. stores this summer.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Lidl opened the doors to its first nine U.S. stores on Thursday following ribbon-cutting ceremonies at locations in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The retailer expects to have 20 stores operating in the three states by summer’s end and as many as 100 stores up and down the East Coast within a year.

The grand openings drew long lines of shoppers, according to local media reports. As part of the grand openings, Lidl is offering limited-time deals as well as free product samples and gifts, such as a reusable Lidl shopping bag, while supplies last. The first 100 shoppers arriving at each locale were offered the chance to win a Lidl gift card valued at $100.

“Lidl is grocery shopping refreshed, retooled and rethought to make life better for all our customers,” Brendan Procter, president and chief executive officer of Lidl U.S., remarked in a recent statement announcing the locations of the first 20 Lidl stores in the United States. “From our selection of sustainable products like our certified fresh and frozen seafood to top-quality wines from around the world available at market-beating prices, our team puts extra effort and attention into each product we put on our shelves. When customers shop at Lidl, they will experience less complexity, lower prices, better choices and greater confidence.”

All of the Lidl stores opening this summer are newly built, encompassing about 20,000 square feet and featuring what the company called an easy-to-shop layout with just six aisles. Each will offer breads and pastries made daily on the premises. About 90% of the groceries for sale at a Lidl outlet are store-brand products.

Lidl, which is part of the privately owned Schwarz Group, runs more than 10,000 stores in 27 countries in Europe. In many ways the retailer is similar to Aldi, another German food retailer that woos consumers with extremely low prices.

Aldi, which has been in the United States for the past four decades, is responding to Lidl’s arrival with plans to modernize the majority of its existing U.S. outlets and open hundreds of new ones. Aldi now operates about 1,600 stores in 35 states and plans to have nearly 2,000 U.S. stores by the end of 2018.