Countdown Papamoa

"One the best supermarkets in Tauranga have great prices and friendly customer service"

"I went to the Papamoa plaza Countdown and it was truly one of the worst experiences I had in a super market, we were 4 people of around 30 years old who are in NZ with a working holiday visa so we do not have an official ID (or not yet), we went to pay at the self-service checkout and a girl told us that we needed our passport to buy 8 beers, we asked her if it was okay since only 2 of us had their original passport, but the other two could we show her a copy or photo and she did not agree with a very bad attitude, my two friends who did have identification tried to buy in another self-service checkout and she told the other girl in that area not to sell us beer, my friends seeing her attitude preferred to go to a personal checkout desk to buy and this time the same girl from the self-service went with the cashier and told her that we couldn't buy beer and then she went to every cashier in the place to inform her not to sell beer to the 4 of us, even at that moment we met two friends in the countdown and we greeted them and they were not allowed to buy beer either even though they did have passports and did not go with us at first, they only greeted us, arguing that "we came together" We had to go for our passports and come back, this time we went directly to a checkout desk and immediately the same girl, seeing us, went directly and attended us personally, this time we handed over all the passports and she checked one by one, seeing the date of birth and the photo and comparing it with each of our faces, really, not even in immigration did they check us that much!! I even asked the girl where she was from because since I came to the country I always say that people in NZ are very friendly and supportive but it turned out that the girl was from India, and I forgot to ask her or notice her name because If not, I would write it, since it made me and my friends have a very bad time, even the second time we came back while she checked our passports one by one, the other girl who was serving before we got looked at us with a guilty and ashamed face for the attitude of her partner and a lady in the line laughed and told us that she couldn't believe the gorl was checking “every passport with entry stamp, biometrics and what countries we've visited in the last few years” (the lady in line joked). Honestly, I can understand anything about policies for the sale of alcohol to minors, but the problem was not only not being able to buy beer, the problem was always the bad attitude, a nefarious attitude, not very nice, and also with a little (or a lot) lack of common sense, since in the same way when we see each other we are all over 30, this type of visa is not granted to people under 18 years of age and you are not capable of at least considering seeing a photo of the passport or other document with a photo and date of birth, I have been in many countdowns in Auckland and Tauranga and I never had a problem if at least half had their original passport and you could show a photo, and also I felt bad because even my friends had a bad time just for saying hello and to think that they were with us This is not a criticism of the supermarket itself, to its prices or products, it is a criticism of the staff and customer service, but whoever works in customer service or sales knows that people are always the most important thing, so if someone who is an immigrant and does not have a NZ ID yet and wants to have a better time shopping (something that is normally enjoyed), then you better consider that Pak'n Save is right opposite, I don't know if you are going to save money, but dislikes and bad times for sure"

"Maketu pies are good as but theyre never on the shelf especially butter chicken, order some more or get better managers to have the shelves restocked more often, it looks sad and ugly as having empty shelves"

"I’m not surprised to see grapes like this on the shelf it’s almost the standard to see stale fruit or veg in this particular countdown"