Editorial: We may pay for stores' security

Who would be a dairy owner?

As our front-page package today explains, Tauranga dairy owners are living in fear as attacks and robberies become more frequent.

In recent weeks we've seen footage of a masked woman wielding a long knife who was frightened off by a panic alarm at an Arataki dairy.

And in March, Ramandeep Singh, owner of Park Rd Dairy, was stabbed at least 10 times by a man armed with what doctors believed was a screwdriver.

Many jobs are dangerous but there are factors about owning and operating a dairy which make this job particularly perilous.

The first is that dairy owners work long hours.

A dairy owner can be found in their shop in the early morning and the evening, when there are fewer potential witnesses about.

Due to the economics of running a small business like a dairy , they almost always work alone. It just isn't viable to have back-up when customers are coming through the door in dribs and drabs around 7.30pm.

Then there's the fact that dairy owners often live on-site so their families are nearby - sometimes even present or just through an open door - when violence erupts at the front counter.

Dairies are family businesses. Children often work for their parents, and many husbands and wives in the corner dairy game share shop shifts and parenting duties.

It must be incredibly frightening to have a gun thrust in your face, a knife brandished in your direction or a screwdriver used to puncture your stomach.

But it must take that fear to a whole new level to know that members of your family are just metres away - watching television, or eating dinner, or doing their homework in the next room.

What is the answer for these frontline workers? We want them to be open long hours so we can grab some milk for our weetbix or a tub of ice cream for an impromptu barbecue, and they need to open long hours to have any hope of competing with supermarkets.

It's obvious to me the days of the friendly corner dairy are over. Just as service stations installed security windows so sole charge staff could work safely and taxis in larger cities have cages to protect the driver from customers, dairy owners must forgo the much-vaunted neighbourhood feel of the corner shop and step up security measures.

Panic alarms might not be enough, and although one local dairy owner said he'd done everything except arm himself, guns certainly aren't the answer either.

Dairies must find the money to install shatterproof boxes with an external window where staff can serve customers late at night. This will cost money and customers must accept that prices will almost certainly go up. If we want the convenience of the corner dairy , in this climate of frequent aggravated robberies, we are going to have to pay for that convenience.