A classic case of the big guy hurting the little guy will be played out again in Tauranga when construction of a new supermarket at Bureta hits the turnover of superette owner Balvir Singh.
"But what can I do, it's just reality," he said with a wave of his hand at the news that Progressive Enterprises planned to build a new Countdown supermarket on the site of the Bureta Park Motor Inn.
Mr Singh was the only retailer in the shopping block next to the hotel to be nervous about the 4000sq m supermarket.
He took some comfort that superettes and dairies continued to trade okay in other areas of Tauranga where they were close to supermarkets, although he had no doubts that Countdown would impact on sales of his large stock of grocery items.
With the prospect that his grocery sales would drop by about half from the price competition of Countdown, Mr Singh was at least hoping to preserve some of his advantage by the supermarket not having a Lotto outlet.