The owner of a grocery store in Saulnierville, N.S., said it was a close call, but no one was injured when a vehicle drove through two sets of front doors, through the condiments aisle and into the coolers at the back of the store on Friday afternoon.

"People had to get out of the way," said Aline Comeau. "They would have been hurt."

Comeau, who runs Foodland in the small French Shore community, said the vehicle initially stopped outside the front doors in a pedestrian area where no parking is allowed. It then crashed through the front doors and stopped inside before continuing on to the back of the store.

"I think he just pressed on the gas instead of the brake," Comeau said.

The elderly male driver and a female passenger were taken to hospital but were later released, Comeau said. Paramedics also tended to others in the store who were upset and crying.

The vehicle crashed through the condiments aisle into the coolers at the back of the store. (Elsie Duncanson)

RCMP spokesperson Const. Chad Morrison said "competency issues" caused the crash and that no tickets were issued or charges were laid.

Comeau said an electrician who was shopping in the store at the time immediately disconnected three damaged coolers for safety reasons and a cleaning crew arrived yesterday to take care of the mess on the floor.

"Bottles break and it splashes everything and it was in the aisles where the pickles and salad dressing, all that gooey stuff," she said. "The cooler he hit had … products like milk and yoghurt and kombucha and all that yeasty stuff, so there's quite a smell in the store."

Comeau said she didn't get much sleep last night because she was thinking about how much worse the incident could have been.

"At least nobody got hurt, that's the main thing.

"You see that on TV but … you never think that you're going to see it in real life. And I hope I don't see it again."

Comeau said she hopes to reopen the store on Sunday.