The signs, now displayed inside the Church St store, read 'BRILLIANT - MOTHER******' and 'BE POLITE - GO **** YOURSELF'.
Queenstown Lakes District Council regulatory manager Lee Webster said district plan rules prohibited signs with ''sexually explicit, lewd or otherwise offensive content''.
Enforcement officers visited the shop soon after receiving the complaint on Monday, and the signs were ''promptly removed''.
The complainant, who did not want to be named, told the Otago Daily Times he had felt embarrassed when a friend from overseas showed him the signs while they were walking through the town centre on Saturday night.
He thought they were ''outrageous'', and after canvassing the opinions of friends and family over the weekend, decided to see what could be done.
He went to the council after the Advertising Standards Authority would not accept his complaint because the signs were not advertisements.
''I'm pleased to see the council acted on it and rightly so.
''There must be some other gimmicky things this company can think of without deliberately taking a shock-horror approach.''
The 70-year-old said he accepted societal attitudes changed over time and people of his age needed to ''roll with the punches a bit''.
He was also aware the company was probably being deliberately provocative, but felt he had to do something.
''This is a tourist town, and it's not sending the right message to people.''
World's Auckland office did not respond to a request
for an interview.
It is not the first time the store has drawn attention.
In July, a snow globe in its window with the word ''F***'' written inside prompted a complaint to the council.
The council was unable to take action because it was not a sign.
World, founded by Dame Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper, was investigated by the Commerce Commission this year for putting ''Fabrique en Nouvelle Zelande'' (Made in New Zealand) labels on clothing it had imported from China or Bangladesh.
The investigation ended last month with the company agreeing to stop the practice and accepting it was likely to breach the Fair Trading Act.
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Comments
I can swear with the best of them and grew up from 17 in an industry where drinking and swearing was part of the culture, but we all knew when it was accepted and when it wasn't. What an earth ever made the shop think this was going to be fine?