[5] In the beginning, mutton and candles were the stores best sellers, which is attributed to the fact that many homes in the Far North still did not have power in 1985.

Pak'nSave originally used a system where customers were given a black marker upon entering the store, which would use this to write the prices onto the goods that they were buying, which they would bring to the checkouts.

[9] Starting in 2017, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) provided funding toward Foodstuffs to trial electric delivery vans.

[12] In December 2017 Foodstuffs recalled a batch of its Pak'nSave branded beef mince after concerns that it contained soft plastic.

[13] In August 2018 Pak'nSave announced that they would stop offering single-use plastic bags by the start of 2019.

[15] In February 2020 Pak'nSave started trialling recycled paper bags for bulk food.

[16] In January 2019 Pak'nSave announced that they would start rolling out the option to buy products online.

[18] During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Pak'nSave shoppers had to be alone, spend a maximum of 30 minutes in the store, and social distance for two metres.

[24] In October 2020, the Commerce Commission fined Pak'nSave Māngere $78,000 for making false and/or misleading representations of prices.

[27] In 2022, Foodstuffs announced that 29 of its North Island stores, including New World and Four Square, had started using facial recognition technology as a measure against crime.

[30][31] The app, made with the GPT-3 language model,[31] sparked controversy when it suggested to a user to make chlorine gas and eat ant‑poison sandwiches.

[32][33] In June 2023, a Pak'nSave in Tauranga started trialling front-facing body cameras due to a rise in retail crime.

[42][43] Shop'nGo is a service where customers are given scanners, which are used to scan products as they shop around the store, which allows them to track the total price.

[44] Pak'nSave is well known for its "cut price" television and print adverts utilising a stick figure, named "Stickman", in black on a yellow background (occasionally, the colour scheme is reversed, including during the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the 2012 Summer Olympics).

[50] In December 2022, under the stage name DJ Save-A-LotT, Stickman hosted an hour-long radio show.

[57] Again in 2018, a Pak'nSave advertisement encouraging responsible drinking was described by the Human Rights Commission as "discriminatory and harmful".

It featured men dressed as women purchasing wine, causing human rights advocates to describe the ad as "transphobic".

[58] In October 2020, the Commerce Commission fined Pak'nSave Māngere $78,000 for making false and/or misleading representations of prices.

[30][31] The app, made with the GPT-3 language model,[31] sparked controversy when it suggested to a user to make chlorine gas and eat ant-poison sandwiches.

[32][33] In early 2023 Pak'nSave owner operators from across the North Island donated over $575,000 to help communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.

[62] A 2021 study by the Commerce Commission found that consumers consider Pak'nSave, compared to other supermarkets, as more inexpensive with poorer quality meats and vegetables.