Canterbury has another supermarket as Pak’nSave Rolleston opens

Tuesday, 14 October 2025

Shoppers have flocked to Rolleston’s newly opened Pak’nSave, with the car park nearly full half an hour before the doors officially opened at 9am.

Rolleston local Matt Skiles was among the first through the doors, calling it “great” to finally have a Pak’nSave in the Selwyn town. Before the store opened, he and his family usually drove into Moorhouse Ave in central Christchurch for their weekly shop.

“It’s nice to have a Pak’nSave here,” he said. “We thought we’d save it until today and come and get some good deals.”

Another early customer was Kaycee Glover, who lives in Leeston. She got a full trolley of groceries in 15 minutes.

The best deals she got were multigrain toast bread - 99C, broccoli 99c, grated cheese $3.99 and the laundry liquid for $6.99 for 2 litres.

“[I] feel like I saved $30 at least,” she said.

The 8100m² store, on the corner of Levi and Rolleston roads, cost more than $40 million to build and has nearly 500 car parks and about 270 staff.

It has eight person-operated checkouts, 18-self service checkouts, 60 hand-held scanners for SHOP’nGo, and click and collect areas.

Lee and Chris Rogers, who live in Darfield, said the new supermarket was a game-changer — it’s now the closest option to their home. Before it opened, the couple drove to Hornby or Riccarton for groceries.

Nitheesh Velayudhan, out shopping with his daughter, said he used to buy groceries at New World or Woolworths in the city. He’s noticed the new supermarket is “much bigger” than what he’s used to.

“We’ll still go to other shops when we can because we want to support the city a bit — it’s not fair to only support one store,” he said.

Rolleston has two supermarkets already, a Woolworths and a New World. Around the rest of the district there is a New World in Lincoln, Fresh Choice stores in Leeston and Prebbleton, and Four Square operations in Darfield and West Melton.

Store co-owner Sarah Blackburn, speaking about the store’s design, said while it was the biggest supermarket in the South Island, it didn’t have more aisles than other stores.

Instead, the layout focused on more bays within each aisle and prioritised wide, open spaces. The design aimed to make shopping comfortable even when the store was busy.

“The idea is that it should feel comfortable and spacious for everyone,” she said.

Foodstuffs purchased the eight-hectare farm site in 2021. A farmer remained living on site until June 2024, with construction beginning in July last year under head contractor Naylor Love. The project was completed in 13 months - two months ahead of schedule.

Sarah and Phill Blackburn have worked in the supermarket industry for more than two decades.

The pair bought their first New World store in Balclutha when they were 29. Since then they opened Ilam New World in 2011, then took over Riccarton’s Pak’nSave a few years ago.

Earlier, Blackburn said the store was not only for Rolleston, which is home for more than 33,000 people, but for the Selwyn District.

Selwyn is the fastest growing district in the country, with the population increasing by about 71% from 2014 to 2024, according to Infometrics data.