New Zealand’s largest Pak’nSave supermarket will remain closed for days after being inundated by floodwaters on Friday night.
Staff are working around the clock to address “extensive” flood damage to the Wairau Road store on Auckland’s North Shore, but Foodstuffs cannot yet estimate a reopening date.
“Our goal is days, not weeks,” the company said in an update issued Tuesday.
“The flood damage was extensive and the sheer size of this store means getting it ready for re-opening is a huge exercise.”
Four of the company’s stores were impacted by flooding, including the New World Newmarket store, which has been open only four months. Owner-operator Matt Hayward and his team managed to get the store cleaned up and back trading at 7am Tuesday.
Hayward said Friday’s deluge happened “incredibly fast” and there was nothing staff could do to prevent the inundation.
“I’d popped out to fetch something from a local hardware store and I got a call from one of the team to say the water was rushing in. I got back as quickly as I could and the store was already underwater,” he recalls.
“The team had done a great job of making sure everyone was safe, evacuating the store and turning the electrics off. All we could do then was sit outside in the covered car park and watch it all happen, there was absolutely nothing we could do.”
Two Foodstuffs stores remained closed on Tuesday: New World Fresh Collective in Mt Albert along with Wairau Pak’nSave.
Meanwhile, Foodstuffs said Aucklanders were remaining calm and shopping locally as a citywide cleanup continued following Friday’s widespread flooding which cost the lives of four people.
“Four Square stores across Tāmaki Makaurau have seen an increase in customers as they’re staying closer to home and thankfully, no evidence of panic buying,” the company said in a statement. “We’d like to thank our customers for only buying what they need, so everyone gets their fair share when they shop.”
The company said it had “plenty of stock in reserve” and had caught up with most of the delays in transportation, with the exception of Four Square in Coromandel which is isolated due to the closure of State Highway 25 due to a massive slip. The grocery company is exploring other options to replenish the store.
Rival Countdown appears to have been less impacted by the flooding, with just one store closed for more than a day, in Mairangi Bay which suffered “extensive” flood damage. All other stores remained open.
