A new discount warehouse and supermarket at Canberra Airport has proved a stunning success with an estimated 5,000 people visiting the store in its opening weekend.

The Supabarn Warehouse, which opened in the airport's Majura retail park in May offers heavily discounted prices on over 5,000 products, including groceries, household items and gardening tools.

Jon Stanhope, chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, was on hand to officially open the store and had these words for onlookers: "This new warehouse will enable Supabarn to store large volumes of products for distribution to its stores, increase its bulk buying power and lower prices in Supabarn stores across the ACT."

Demand in its opening weekend was so great that extra check out lanes and refrigeration units had to be constructed in a matter of days.

By Oliver Clark