Editorial: A supermarket ripped away - the Foodstuffs decision that should infuriate Hawke’s Bay

New World Flaxmere - the store the community will have to get used to for the foreseeable future.

OPINION:

Here’s how the story goes.

A supermarket that is the focal point for an affluent community is becoming run-down and small. A replacement supermarket is promised. Work begins.

At the exact same time, a supermarket that is the focal point for a lower-income community is becoming run-down and small. A replacement supermarket is promised. Work begins.

The stories of Flaxmere and Havelock North’s New World supermarkets should finish the same way too. Except they won’t.

Because Foodstuffs and Hastings District Council sent us an email on Thursday to say Flaxmere’s new supermarket has been put on the scrap heap.

Foodstuffs has, apparently, met headwinds. The “market conditions” for building big commercial buildings have made Flaxmere’s supermarket unviable.

And so the corporate behemoth, which makes more profit in a day than many companies in Hawke’s Bay make in a year, is cancelling its once-celebrated sale and purchase agreement for new land (on the site of Flaxmere’s old skatepark).

On Friday, the diggers continued their work at the new Havelock North New World site, behind the Mobil on Havelock Rd.

There’s no expectation that Foodstuffs will cancel that one too: its response to that question on Thursday was to say that each new store build is a “completely separate project”.

So, it appears Havelock North’s gain is once again Flaxmere’s pain.

For Hawke’s Bay, this is a tale as old as time. A community that’s had so many promises from companies and its council that it will be allowed to thrive is shafted, yet again.

I spoke to Flaxmere councillor Henry Heke on Friday. “I don’t buy it,” he said bluntly of Foodstuffs’ excuses.

He sees the suburb he represents as the fastest-growing suburb of one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing cities.

He predicts Flaxmere’s population could grow to as much as 18,000 in the coming decade if promised housing developments and natural growth come to pass.

How could that not be worth investing in, he asks? Where’s the foresight from Foodstuffs?

Heke wants other supermarkets to take up the challenge to Foodstuffs - to buy the land instead. He sees it, and other projects planned in the city centre, as transformational.

The problem that Heke has, though he’s diplomatic on this subject, is that he’s just one man, just one councillor.

Flaxmere lost its second councillor at the last election, swallowed up in a redesign of the council table to accommodate Māori wards.

The lost supermarket of Flaxmere may or may not be a sign of a loss of representation for Flaxmere, but it strikes me as concerning.

One last thing to note: in 2021, Foodstuffs set itself targets across all of its four social promises; to support every New Zealander to access healthy and affordable food, create meaningful work, support local communities to thrive and be industry leaders in sustainability.

Its cancelling of its sale and purchase agreement in Flaxmere is the opposite of supporting it to thrive.