Some were constrained by new Resource Management Act rules that meant arguments related to trade competition were no longer allowed.
Pak n' Save, for instance, was unable to argue the effect of the proposal on the success of its business.
Applicant Progressive Enterprises' evidence on Wednesday estimated Pak n' Save's sales would fall by 27%, costing it $23 million a year in sales.
The new rules, though, did not stop its operator from trying to talk the committee into rejecting the plan.
A hearings committee of city councillors Richard Walls and Kate Wilson, and commissioner David Benson-Pope, heard day two of the application, after Wednesday's evidence at which Progressive presented its plans.
The proposal would result in three supermarkets within 1km: the new Countdown, the nearby Woolworths, which it is planned to rebrand as a Countdown, and Pak n' Save just a block from the new site.
The application is a non-complying activity, a large-scale retail activity in an industrial zone.
Committee chairman Cr Walls made the point to several of those presenting submissions the impositions that could result from the supermarket could also result from a complying activity, for example, a factory that could be built as of right in the industrial zone.
Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive John Scandrett said he was concerned increased traffic flow, large trucks and more parking in an already busy Braemar St could cause "severe business disruption".
Graeme Sneddon, of Graeme Sneddon Builders, said he was concerned about noise at his Braemar St business, fumes, and devaluation of the property.
William McDonald, director of McDonald Holdings, which operates Pak n' Save, said he provided 403 car parks at his business, double what Progressive planned to provide.
If consent was granted, there would be "grossly inadequate" customer and staff car parks, and the extra traffic and deliveries would affect traffic flow to and from his business.
There was other land for supermarkets, with the Carisbrook stadium land one option.
Counsel Trevor Shiels appeared for Foodstuffs, which owns the South City Mall, and leases the supermarket to McDonald Holdings.
He told the committee there would be significant adverse effects on traffic and heritage, and the application was not a true exception that should allow retail in an industrial zone.
"If the city no longer considers the zoning appropriate, it should institute a plan change."
Mr Shiels said there was not going to be "one more dollar" spent on groceries in Dunedin because of a new supermarket.
Under the new rules, he could not complain about that.
But he did tell the committee Progressive's evidence of extra jobs created by its new supermarket was wrong; instead, staff would just move from one supermarket to another.
For Foodstuffs, transportation engineer Andrew Milne said planned traffic lights on Andersons Bay Rd would result in a six-fold increase in expected injury accidents.
It would also result in queueing in the car park at the Countdown supermarket, and drivers would be inclined to look for off-site parks, he said.
