Campaign focus on mobile trucks targeting poor

Tim Howard describes the truck-based sellers which target low-income areas as "predators on poverty". Photo / Michael Cunningham

Mobile shops which trawl Whangarei's low-income areas targeting the poor will themselves become the target of a new campaign aiming to educate the public.

The founder of the Stop Truckshops Action Group (STAG), Tim Howard, said it was time to stop these "predators on poverty", to whom people could pay upwards of $35 for a box of cereal, thanks to high interest rates, establishment fees and poorly-explained payment plans.

"These trucks give easy credit, at exorbitant rates, to lower income people, without naming the total costs of the buying to the buyers, just the weekly payback rates," he said.

"One of their focuses is where people already had financial problems. The shops are not just sellers, they are loan sharks. They are granting credit to people who would not have got credit elsewhere."

The shops were a familiar sight on the streets of Otangarei, Tikipunga and Raumanga and flogged a variety of goods, from groceries to electronics.

Northland field officer for the Federation of Family Budgeting services, Tracey Green, said mobile sellers were "frustrating" for budgeting providers.

The federation had tried to set up agreements with the truck companies.

"We do have a memorandum of understanding with Home Direct and they work closely with us. Of all of them Home Direct is the the least troublesome because they are willing to work with us."

Other sellers had been much less forthcoming, Green said.

"The reality is they're paying three times the price they would at their local department store ... There's also account set up fees and the interest rates are pretty high but the cost of the product in the first place is exorbitant."

She urged anyone who wanted to avoid the sellers to get a free "Do Not Knock" sticker from www.consumer.org.nz/articles/do-not-knock.

Howard said the campaign - which was backed by a number of community service providers - would use social media and printed materials to raise awareness.