• Woolworths on Te Atatū Peninsula will close late April, leaving 15,000 residents of the suburb without a supermarket for a year. 
• Foodstuffs North Island has bought the site and is planning to open a New World after building refurbishment. 
• Residents are concerned about the inconvenience, with the nearest supermarket over 2.6km away. 

Fifteen thousand residents of one Auckland suburb will be left without a supermarket for more than a year, leaving some concerned about where they will go. 

Woolworths on Te Atatū Peninsula, a suburb being reshaped by new townhouses as building densities intensify, will close on April 24. 

Foodstuffs North Island has bought the Te Atatū Rd site and promised to refurbish and modernise the existing buildings ready to open a New World in over a year’s time. 

“[It’s] not very good at all. I wouldn’t have a clue [where else to go],” one disgruntled shopper told the Herald on Tuesday afternoon. 

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

Of those who spoke to the Herald, most said they would get groceries from Te Atatū South or Lincoln Rd. 

“[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. 

“Unfortunately, we won’t have any other option, will we? Just to wait and see,” one man said. 

Woolworths in Te Atatū Peninsula is closing on April 24 and will be replaced by a New World in a year's time, leaving local shoppers in the lurch while they wait. Photo / Corey Fleming 

Another shopper said it was “not ideal. But what can you do about it, you can’t shop at the Four Square [across the road]”. 

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 other supermarket to the peninsula is over 2.6km away from the Te Atatū Rd site at the corner of Te Atatū and Edmonton Rds in Te Atatū South. 

This Woolworths serves residents in its own suburb as well as in 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. 

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.