{"id":1148,"date":"2025-09-04T11:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1148\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:39:09","slug":"woolworths-taupo-central-reopens-on-original-1961-site-with-restored-carved-pou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1148\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths Taup\u014d Central reopens on original 1961 site with restored carved pou"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re investing in our store network across Aotearoa to better meet the needs of our customers and team, and opening state-of-the-art stores like Woolworths Taup\u014d Central is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original store from 1961, described as a \u201cdrive-in supermarket\u201d in an article from the Taupo Times at the time of the opening, had a trading area of 660sq m. <\/p>\n

The historic article was captioned \u201cTaupo\u2019s growth has attracted every type of business – now we have: Woolworths\u201d and highlights the \u201cnew trend\u201d among supermarkets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new Drive-In-Supermarket is a good example of the \u2018one stop shopping\u2019 trend in chain stores, the aim being to stock as many lines of merchandise as possible under one roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe introduction of food to Woolworths was a revolutionary step, but results have certainly justified it,\u201d the article reads.<\/p>\n

\" A Taupo Times newspaper article from 1961 talks about the opening of the first Woolworths store in town.<\/p>\n

Woolworths first opened in New Zealand in Wellington in 1929 as a general merchandise store, selling items such as jewellery and household goods.<\/p>\n

For the first Woolworths supermarket in Taup\u014d in 1961, Rotorua master carver Hone Taiapa had carved three wooden pou, representing T\u016bmatauenga, guardian of humanity; Rongo, god of agriculture and compassion; and T\u0101ne Mahuta, god of the forest and all within it.<\/p>\n

The three pou have now been restored by Taup\u014d master carver Delani Brown and are part of the new store that opened today.<\/p>\n

\" The three pou have now been restored by Taup\u014d master carver Delani Brown and are part of the new Woolworths store that opened today. Photo \/ Corbie Films<\/p>\n

The pou are important to long-serving Woolworths team members Lee Mohi (Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa, 40 years\u2019 service with Woolworths) and Ravenna Priest who is the unofficial archivist for Woolworths in Taup\u014d (nearly 45 years\u2019 service). <\/p>\n

Mohi was happy to see the restored pou included in the new store.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years they have become part of our everyday working life here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I used to walk past them most days, coming and going from the store and I always felt the need to touch them and respect them, and now they\u2019re the history of the store and they\u2019ll be here a lot longer than all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new Taup\u014d Central store is more than 4000sq m and has a team of 110 staff, including 58 newly created jobs.<\/p>\n

Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re investing in our store network across Aotearoa to better meet the needs of our customers and team,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1856,1863,138,1859,1853,1862,1861,130,111,139,69,90,1864,1855,1860,1854,1858,1857,97,1852,131,1865,102,92,1530],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-1856","tag-back","tag-business","tag-carved","tag-central","tag-dating","tag-history","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opened","tag-original","tag-pou","tag-reopens","tag-restored","tag-site","tag-supermarket","tag-taup","tag-than","tag-today","tag-with","tag-woolworths","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}