• Fifteen thousand Te Atatū Peninsula residents will lose supermarket access for a year as Woolworths closes.
• Foodstuffs bought the site and plans to open a New World after refurbishing the building.
• Locals express concern over grocery access, needing to travel 3km-5km to the the nearest supermarkets.

Fifteen thousand Auckland residents are today set to lose access to their suburb’s supermarket for one year as Te Atatū Peninsula’s Woolworths closes down.

Woolworths Te Atatū supermarket shuts its doors for good at 6pm after rival company Foodstuffs bought the land it sits on with the intention of opening a New World supermarket on the site next year.

The closure has left some locals concerned about their access to groceries, while Woolworths is today giving out treats to those visiting the store before its 6pm closure.

Jason Stockill, the company’s New Zealand director of stores, said his team were saddened but also grateful for “many years of support”.

“We will close early today [at 6pm] and be giving out small treats to customers shopping with us as our way of saying thank you,” Stockill said.

“We’ll also be holding a catered dinner for our team to acknowledge the end of our chapter in Te Atatū.”

Stockill said he was pleased many of the store’s staff had been able to continue working with Woolworth’s nearby supermarkets.

Others had alternately “decided to make a change and move on to new opportunities, and we wish them all the best”, he said.

“We look forward to continuing to serve many locals at our Te Atatū South and other nearby stores, and through online shopping.”

Foodstuffs North Island earlier announced it had bought the Te Atatū Rd site and promised to refurbish and modernise the existing buildings ahead of opening a New World in over a year’s time.

However, when the Woolworths closure date was announced last month, many shoppers told the Herald they were concerned.

Shoppers will have to travel about 3km-5km to get to the nearest large supermarkets in Te Atatū South or Lincoln Rd, Henderson.

“[It’s] not very good at all. I wouldn’t have a clue [where else to go],” one disgruntled shopper said last month.

Another shopper, with kids in tow, said: “That’s pretty shocking, that’s a whole year without a supermarket.”

“[It’s] not cool, especially for old people. Te Atatū South will be the closest. And I care for my mother-in-law, so I’m having to stay close,” another shopper said.

Woolworths in Te Atatū Peninsula is giving out treats today as it closes its doors for good. Photo / Corey Fleming

And people had mixed feelings about a New World replacing the store.

“We’re just going to have to wait because they’ll give us a new one, and it’s about time, we’ve had this one for years,” one woman said.

Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson said: “People want to get to the supermarket as conveniently as possible” so there was concern among residents that “things will be a bit tougher” in the meantime.

“People will have to pop over the bridge probably more often than they usually would,” Henderson said.

“I think people by and large will probably have to go all-in on click and collect and things like that. There’s different ways around things in the modern world these days.”

The nearest supermarket to the peninsula is over 2.9km away from the Te Atatū Rd site at the corner of Te Atatū and Edmonton Rds in Te Atatū South.

That Woolworths serves residents in its own suburb and Glendene and Kelston. Another supermarket serving the suburbs is more than 3.2km away at Kelston Mall, which itself is less than 2km from Woolworths Lynnmall.

Heading west, the nearest supermarkets are the Woolworths and Pak’nSave in Henderson and Pak’nSave on Lincoln Rd, about 5km from the store set to close.

Census 2023 found the population of Te Atatū Peninsula was 14,454. And in the three years since 2022, 1107 consents were issued for new homes, Statistics New Zealand data showed.