Thousands of dollars worth of meat and dairy products had to be dumped after a malfunction at Napier Pak'nSave's main chiller.
Customers were left "bewildered" by the bare refrigerator shelves on Wednesday morning, when all stock inside the main chiller was removed.
Pak'nSave Napier operator Robbie Watson said a malfunction in the cooling system of its main chiller overnight forced their hand.
"As the product may not have been kept at the correct temperature, we removed and disposed of everything in the chiller before opening this morning," he said.
"The issue has now been fixed and we're in the process of replacing the stock, which we expect to be back to normal levels tomorrow."