Supervalue Parkwood owner Manish Thakkar Photo: Supplied
Business owners are questioning the government's response to a spate of vicious attacks on stores in Auckland and Hamilton recently, pointing to increasing insurance costs, staff shortages and mental health stress as rising crime is taking a toll.
They are calling on the government to introduce more practical steps to tackle crime instead of wheeling out ready-made clichés.
Manish Thakkar, owner of SuperValue Parkwood in Waikato, says he is still shaken after being held at gunpoint during a robbery four months ago. He says crime has become an almost daily occurrence, which is hard to stomach.
"Previously we were enjoying customers and enjoying doing business, and now it is entirely the opposite," Thakkar says. "We are so scared in the business that we don't know when five or six people will jump behind the counter and start beating us."
Thakkar has also struggled to find employees who were willing to work behind the counter after three workers quit earlier this year. What's more, his insurance premiums have risen significantly.
"I've just spoken with my insurance agent, and she said 'Manish your excess will go up $10,000 per burglary'," he says. "If there is crime again, I don't know if I am able to claim it or not."
Thakkar says he knows of five or six stores in Hamilton that have closed, and many others were considering taking the same action.
Another business owner, Naresh Kumar, who owns eight vape stores in Auckland and Hamilton, has suffered four robberies this year and he now fears an attack after nightfall.
The rise in crime was taking a toll on his mental health and that of his workers, he says.
"It has given (me) a lot of trauma," he says."I had times where I've woken up in the middle of the night just simply checking the cameras."
A Vapeys vape store in Whangaparāoa. Photo: Supplied / Vapeys
Naresh says it's not the New Zealand he once knew when he migrated 15 years ago.
"I can't recall even a single incident of a serious robbery," he says of those times."Shoplifting was the worst crime you saw those days."
Cici Sie worked at a dairy in east Auckland's Flat Bush neighbourhood. She says at least 10 crimes have happened in the store over the past year, including theft, robbery and burglary.
"I don't feel safe," she says. "I'm always on tenterhooks ... no matter what time. You don't know when they will come."
She says the government's crime prevention measures, including subsidies to install security fog cannons, were not making much of a difference, and the law needed to be tougher on young offenders.
She says New Zealand valued human rights and freedom, but those of the victims were being ignored.
"Do those who are robbed have human rights?" she asks. "The police can't do much for them. Who's covering their costs? Who's looking after the human rights of those who're attacked? And for those who are killed, do they have human rights?"
Ben Yang is the relationship ambassador at Business North Harbour, a business group covering Albany, where the axe attacks happened last month.
He says some businesses have closed their doors after being attacked multiple times, and many others have been struggling.
"They are overwhelmed because they have so many things to worry about - rising prices and the cost of labour and can't find the right person," he says. "They now also have to worry about crime."
He says more government funding would help, as his group has to juggle how to allocate the limited crime prevention fund to things such as security guards and cameras.
