"It's a job for them to sit out there and beg for money or food."
She had tried to contact the police regarding the issue, and the council "hadn't acted at all" on her complaints, she said.
Liz Jones, who works at Baker of Bethlehem, said she had seen a group congregate outside Bethlehem Hall, just down the road from the bakery.
"They're there in the morning when I pull up at 5am or 6am, they're all asleep on the verandah," she said.
They were still there when she took her morning break, Jones said. She said they all seemed "zoned out".
"It's a little bit unnerving for the public ... You don't know what sort of state they're in," Moore said.
The council needed to "keep the bylaw in place", she said.
"At least with it there, a lot of the time you can approach [beggars] to leave ... if they allow it to go back to the way it was I can imagine it will only get worse again."
Manager of Bethlehem Four Square Ravi, who did not want to give his last name, said he had to trespass seven people from his shop over the past few weeks.
He had contacted the council "every day for months", he said, and they were "unable to do anything".
Ravi said he had tried talking to the group, asking them to leave customers alone.
"They harass old people and young mums, lying on the footpath so they have to walk around," he said.
He said he started giving the beggars a pie and a drink each day to stop them hanging around his shop and bothering customers.
Owner of Bethlehem Motors, Craig Major, said although he didn't have it "as bad" outside his business because there was nowhere to sit, he had been having issues with people loitering and getting into fights.
"They've been out the back of the shops, drunk and out-of-control," he said.
"It's wearing all of our local businesses down."
It had been going on for "a couple of years" but had recently got worse, he said.
"[They're] wandering around with no shirts on, walking back and forth across the street," he said.
He had approached the council, but it "took them ages" to do anything, Major said.
Tauranga City Council's begging and rough sleeping ban came into effect in April but only applied within 5m of retail and eatery entrances in the central shopping areas of the Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Greerton CBDs.
It did not apply in Bethlehem or in privately-owned shopping areas such as the nearby Bethlehem Town Centre.
A council committee voted six to four to recommend revoking the bylaw, with the recommendation going to a full council meeting on Thursday for ratification.
Asked for a response to the retailers' concerns, the council said it had only received one complaint about begging in Bethlehem high street since the bylaw came into effect in April.
This complaint was in relation to a property owned by NZTA.
Regulation monitoring team leader Stuart Goodman said they looked into every complaint or inquiry they received and do "what they can" to resolve the issue.
"However, council does not have the authority to move individuals by punitive means," he said.
"If people are homeless, we will connect them with support services. If they are freedom camping, they could receive a $200 fine.
"If people feel unsafe or threatened, they should contact the police."
