The superette's owner, Ricky Singh, who also owns Papamoa Liquor Centre next door, was shaken this afternoon.
He told NZME News Service his mother was working in the shop behind the counter at the time of the accident, and had been taken to hospital with a leg injury.
"Mum's at the hospital now, I was at home today when I just a call from my dad that next door someone had driven their car inside the dairy.
"We're lucky that it wasn't worse than it is I guess, there were no customers at the front. It could have been so much worse.
"They have taken her in the ambulance, they're not telling us anything yet."
He said the frame, doors and windows at the front of the store were completely smashed, and there was more damage inside.
"All the tills and counters, there is nothing [left]. It is going to be quite a bit to fix it all up."
Mr Singh said he was simply "relieved" his mother was not more seriously injured.
A shop assistant at a nearby store said she had popped along to the scene on her lunch break to see what was happening.
She said she believed an older man had been driving the vehicle.
"He was still stuck in his car for quite a while," she said.
"We've all been kind of popping our heads out wondering what is going on.Another shop assistant from a nearby store said he heard the store's glass breaking."
I had a look the car was just sitting in the shop pretty much, it had just gone in the front door, they were pretty much right up by the counter.
"All the glass on the front door is broken, it's all smashed."
