Retail crime is out of control and we can do better: Paula Bennett

Being a retailer has never been easy. Trying to keep ahead of trends, being nice to customers when they aren’t always pleasant, and watching sales decrease every quarter as you combat the cost of living and the increase in online shopping.

Living in daily fear is just appalling. Turning up to work every day and wondering if this is the day you will be robbed and potentially assaulted.

Figures released this week tell a hideous story of how real it is. There were 148,599 retail crimes reported to police last year, nearly triple the 50,840 crimes reported in 2020.

Stealing and ram-raiding is bad enough, but I can’t get my head around the fact there were 69 sexual assault and related offences reported to police in the three Auckland districts in 2023. A sexual assault in a retail outlet happened once a week on average last year.

A sexual assault is said to be “an assault that has a sexual nature to it (non-consensual touching but of a sexual kind)”. How can this be happening in retail? Why aren’t we asking more questions?

Is it a pervert customer in a shop who then assaults another customer or worker? Is it one of the criminals holding up the shop who then takes the opportunity to traumatise their victim? Is it a combination of both?

These are only the crimes that are reported. How many are having distressing and traumatising experiences and not reporting them? Surely with CCTV everywhere now, this should not be happening and when it is they should be caught quickly?

In Auckland there were 764 reported acts intended to cause injury. That is on average two a day. We read the stories and watch on the news the horrendous acts of violence against retailers. They have become so common they often don’t make the news.

Throughout the country as a whole, assaults in retail were up 20 per cent on 2022, that is six retailers a day being assaulted at work. Too many assaults are being committed by young people with no concern for consequences.

The only positive note I can find is the number of young people aged 10-17 being held to account was up 30 per cent on 2022. But what has actually happened to them? Yes I believe in wrap-around support. I don’t know any young person who would even consider robbing a dairy and assaulting the worker, but then the ones I know come from decent, loving families.

Bring on the military-style camps and hold these young people to account and get them in an environment where they learn consequences and discipline.

Let’s also take a moment to recognise our hard-working retailers that now must live in constant fear.