Supermarket swap: Napier’s two near-neighbouring Countdowns to become two Woolworths

Two Countdowns, or Woolworths-to-be, in central Napier's supermarket zone. Photo / NZME

Napier is a little bit famous for being a city with two Countdowns right next to each other, but soon the city will have two Woolworths supermarkets in close proximity.

The supermarket chain has reaffirmed it has no plans to sell either of its two near-neighbouring operations.

Amid the nationwide rebranding from Countdown to Woolworths, there are also no plans by the Napier sites’ landlords to sell either of the properties, which are separated by just the width of the southwestern end of Tennyson St.

The first, bounded by Tennyson, Dickens, Munroe and Station streets, was built in Napier in 1988 as one of the first North Island stores in the expansion from the South Island. The name appeared 20 years ago on the “Carlyle” site amid a Woolworths Group buy-out of Countdown operator Progressive Enterprises.

The situation with the two sites so close to each other has intrigued visitors and even created national commentary, including a four-minute look at the issue by comedian and TV show host Guy Williams in 2018.

This week the company was responding to Hawke’s Bay Today queries amid further community speculation about Countdown’s future in Napier and other provincial centres where the chain also operates two sites. In Napier it was reported in 2015 that plans for another store in the suburbs had been shelved.

Woolworths New Zealand director of property Matt Grainger said: “We haven’t sold either of our Napier or Carlyle stores.

“While we don’t share our store network strategy publicly, we can say that all our stores across New Zealand - including the four stores in the wider Hawke’s Bay - will benefit from the $400 million store investment programme we announced in July,” he said.

“Our Hawke’s Bay customers can look forward to a fresh, new-look Woolworths store in their local area soon.”

Speculation was revived after Woolworths New Zealand and Countdown Group announced in July that the Countdown stores would be rebranded as Woolworths stores early in 2024.

Countdown first appeared in Napier late in 1988 as the brand expanded north just six years after Rattrays opened the first Countdown store in Christchurch in 1981.

The opening of the Countdown Foodmarket, on a block bounded by Dickens, Munro, Station and Tennyson streets, on a site previously occupied by home furnishings store Smith and Brown, a car sale yard and a group of shops known as Station Court, was a big event in Napier.

Heading into the summer holiday season, it came with a special on sausages at 10 for $1 and bread at a price which sent the city’s supermarkets into a frenzy, spiralling the price down to as low as 5 cents a loaf, in what became known as The Mother of All Bread Wars.

Across the road, a store had opened under the Woolworths brand and became Big Fresh, with singing vegetables and an animal theme to keep the children happy, before it became the second Countdown in town 20 years ago.

Also in the mix at the time Countdown arrived was a Write Price supermarket in the Balmoral Shopping Centre. It closed with the opening of the new Pak‘nSave Napier supermarket in 2004.

There had also been the Safeway supermarket, opened in Tamatea in 1985, which became Napier’s first Pak‘nSave, and in 2002 the first supermarket in New Zealand with its own petrol pumps.