Eager shoppers swallowed up almost all 500 carparks within an hour of the opening of the South Island's biggest supermarket on the outskirts of Christchurch, but amid the excitement some neighbours say they are facing increased noise, heavy traffic and a fall in home values.
Rolleston Pak'nSave owner-operators Phill and Sarah Blackburn started out with Balclutha New World before owning Ilam New World and then Riccarton Pak'nSave.
Blackburn said she could not have foreseen one day opening the $40 million supermarket when the couple started out in the Clutha district.
"But I'm not surprised - I think the journey rewards people who give back and who are passionate about communities and others, and I think that sums Phillip and I up."
Blackburn she did not begrudge spending her wedding anniversary working on last-minute preparations two days before the grand opening, and was pleased they were two months ahead of schedule.
Thought had gone into catering for the ongoing growth of Rolleston, with Foodstuffs working to futureproof the building, Blackburn said.
"They've thought so carefully about that - they've built something here that will genuinely last the distance. It's built to accommodate future growth in a sustainable way."
Lincoln University students Hugo Berrenger and Alex Palmer were waiting outside the supermarket even before the ribbon was cut, each leaving with a case of Double Brown beer.
"We've been looking out for it for the last couple of months. It's a good facility, good prices, good to be here," Berrenger said.
Burnham student Kezia Knight welcomed the new supermarket, but said more work needed to be done so retail and civic infrastructure kept up with the pace of growth.
"It makes sense that rates have gone up so much because the infrastructure needs to accommodate so many people. I know it's a lot, but it has to be paid for somehow."
Foodstuffs was flooded with hopeful employees, receiving more than 3200 applications for 270 positions.
Delicatessen manager Eirenne Reyes came from a different Pak'nSave, while deli assistant Sharon Taimailelagi was a new Rolleston hire.
While she did not have supermarket experience, Taimailelagi said as a mum of three, "cooking was everyday, natural".
Store manager Rob Dixon said more than 700 interviews were conducted, including group interviews. He said he was pleased to have been able to hire so many locals.
"People want to work where they live - there's lots of people out here that were commuting into town, so as well as giving them the job we've given them an hour of their life back everyday."
When former prime minister Norman Kirk dubbed Rolleston the "town of the future" in the early 1970s, the population of 1000 was surrounded by big sky and farmland. It is now the bustling hub of the country's fastest-growing district, Selwyn.
Prior to the Christchurch earthquakes, Rolleston's population was 5220 (in 2006). Less than 20 years later, the 2023 census showed Rolleston's population at more than 30,000.
Sandy Campbell and her husband Paddy bought land on Levi Road 14 years ago. At the time, their property was bordered by farms and green space and the couple were told the area across the road would remain a green belt.
Campbell said they were now unwilling neighbours to the South Island's biggest supermarket.
"We could walk through the back all the way to the motorway and we could go the other way and there were no houses. We were told that was going to be green belt, that's why we built here."
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Campbell said the couple and their neighbours were told the loading bay would be away from their homes, but had finished up almost directly across the road.
The major roadworks needed for the development had been highly disruptive, she said.
"The road works were going for 24 hours a day for three or four days at a time. My neighbour next door, she's in renal failure, and they were out there at 2am begging them to stop so they could get some sleep - they went and stood in front of the machinery."
To add insult to injury, residents received an acknowledgement of "a little chocolate Easter bunny and a wee note saying thank you for your patience. It was appalling".
Soon after, the couple came back from summer holidays to discover their security camera had caught road workers using their water.
Campbell said the roading company agreed to pay half of their water bill, but not before she contacted them and "went off".
Traffic backed up from a nearby intersection all the way to the motorway at times, making getting in and out of their driveway difficult, and Campbell said there was no question the value of her and her neighbours' properties had fallen because of the supermarket.
"We built here because we wanted to stay here. This was going to be our spot until we downsized, but it's going to have to be sooner."
Rolleston's first supermarket, New World, opened in 2002, followed by Countdown (now Woolworths) in 2011.
Campbell said she understood the need for development but thought three supermarkets within a kilometre, with a fourth to open on Goulds Road, was "overkill".
Alternatively, she thought big-box retail should have been restricted to the iZone, a council-owned industrial zone on the other side of the state highway.
Campbell said the Selwyn District Council had not contacted her about the development and she did not make a submission during the resource consent process because she felt it was already a "done deal".
The council issued consents to open the Pak'nSave in 2022.
Earlier this year, Selwyn District Council approved Foodstuffs' bid to rezone the area from medium-density residential to large-format retail.
A Foodstuffs South Island spokesperson said the location was selected with "community interaction at the forefront of our minds".
"The site is a destination with strong roading, cycling and pedestrian connections for both Rolleston and the wider Selwyn District, and supported access for neighbouring residential areas and the Rolleston township," and would "promote cross-shopping" with the Mitre 10 which was expected to join the new supermarket, the spokesperson said.
The iZone industrial park would not have been an appropriate alternative, given it was separated from the town by the state highway and the rail corridor, it said.
