Editorial: Open all hours to crime

The dairy is the new fortress, writes Mark Story. Photo File

Some are joking that the New Zealand economy must be booming because people are opting to rob dairies - not banks.

Who'd have thought back in the suburban store's inception from the 1900s through to the depression era, where Kiwis were adding rooms to the front of their homes to sell milk, cream, cheese, butter and eggs (hence "dairy"), that the humble industry would materialise as one of our most prevailing crime scenes.

Jokes aside, the industry's hardly a lucrative one.

Compared with supermarkets, dairy operators can't demand the same bulk-purchase discounts. This means long opening hours, simultaneous multi-generational input and the onus of being tied to your job.

Due to the low outlay of setting up and independence it's historically been an attractive option for immigrants.

Increasingly these dogged operators face the perpetual risk of violence and thuggery meted out by armed desperadoes demanding tobacco and cash. There's a renewed call for a special taskforce and harsher penalties.

The truth is, dairies are a coward's target. Often they're manned by both older and younger staff in a family setting; it's tantamount to home invasion.

Last month a group of dairy owners marched against violent crime in Auckland.

Spokesperson Sunny Kaushal said owners were now being seriously assaulted even before demands were made.

Police recommend flight not fight - and they're right of course.

But because so many of us harbour a secret admiration for enduring operators so dedicated in their work, many of us also harbour a secret admiration for the same operators who, at wit's end, step from behind the counter swinging sporting equipment.