Mr Bruce said the store had more than 400 customers on its first day.
"It's great to be a service and for people to come in and enjoy that service."
Mr Bruce said the area was the perfect space for a supermarket with no others similar in the immediate area.
"If locals want bread or milk - you have to go down to Greerton or somewhere else."
Mr Bruce said they always knew that Pak'nSave was to open at Tauranga Crossing about 3km away.
"We feel this is more a local convenience store. It's not a completely different market but the thing for us is customer service.
"If it is raining outside, we will have an umbrella to take people to the car."
The Liz van Welie Aquatic Centre was due to open mid-February.
"Everything is ticking away perfectly," owner/swim instructor Liz Cummings said.
The swimming complex would feature two pools - a six-lane 25m pool and a 12m x 6m learners' pool.
Mrs Cummings said the new pools were not a public facility like the Bay Wave but rather a training facility.
The Lakes managing director Scott Adams said there were nine tenancies available in the residential area for commercial trade.
The shops in the Boulder Lane Shopping Village would begin to open next month and include a Four Square, four restaurants - including Japanese, Turkish, South American and Indian - a physio, and The Lakes sales office.
Mr Adams said he was not worried about the SuperValue which had opened just up the road.
"We have known it has been coming for a few years. SuperValue will service Pyes Pa and Four Square will service The Lakes."
Mr Adams said residents in the area had been appealing for shops for a while.
"It's great to see our local village coming to life."
Antoinette Laird, head of external relations for Foodstuffs, which owns Pak'nSave, said in a statement the company welcomed competition and had not opposed SuperValue's resource consent.
"Pak'nSave will continue to provide a great range of high-quality, fresh products to the Tauriko community."
