Fears for the safety of staff as Kiwis are expected to flock back to shops with the easing of Covid restrictions and the coming Christmas shopping season, has led retail industry leaders to re-launch the Shop Nice public awareness campaign.
Greg Harford, Chief Executive of Retail NZ, says the number of reports of aggressive behaviour towards retail workers - which number in the thousands every year - have doubled since 2019.
"Retailers across the country are experiencing significantly high levels of instore violence aggression from the general public and now Covid-19 restrictions have been dropped - and with the busy Christmas shopping season ahead of us - we want to remind people to chill out, not get angry and just shop nicely when out," he says.
Harford says there are many cases of customers getting angry with retail workers because of queues and lack of product on the shelves, harassment and abuse based on gender and ethnicity - and incidents where customers get angry with each other over perceptions of queue jumping or product hoarding.
"There has been some physical violence reported and many threats of violence," he says. "In cases where there have been actual assaults our advice is to report them to the police."
Harford says while supermarket workers are an obvious target, incidents have been occurring across-the-board in retail such as in clothing stores and craft shops and he believes the impact of Covid has been a contributing factor: "Covid unleashed a sense of anger among many people through stress and worry.
"But it (aggressive behaviour) is devastating for retail workers who just want to do their job; some find it so difficult they don't want to go to work at all and it is contributing to a perception that retail is not a good place to be."
He says the situation is exacerbating the problem of staff shortages. While around 220,000 people are employed in retail - roughly 10 per cent of New Zealand's total workforce - Harford says the industry has an estimated 7000 to 10,000 vacancies.
"We are facing massive issues, but want to remind New Zealanders that retail is a great place to work and is somewhere where people can build amazing careers," Harford says.
The Shop Nice campaign was originally launched late last year following a Summit at Parliament. It is committed to zero tolerance on acts of aggression, abuse and violence towards retail workers.
"We want to raise awareness of the impact Kiwis are having on retail workers through such acts and to emphasise that they are people too. They deserve to be treated with respect and we need to draw a line in the sand against undue abuse," Harford says.
"We want to encourage Kiwis to take a moment and breathe instead of involving retail staff in an aggressive or tense situation."
Shop Nice posters, which have been put up in many shops and stores, have had an impact.
"Staff in those places say they feel as if someone is looking after them, while others say it causes customers to have second thoughts about any aggressive behaviour."
Harford suggests Kiwis take a few key steps to make retail workers feel supported including treating them with respect, using polite and non-threatening language at all times, saying hello, kia ora and good morning, smile, follow shop rules and say thank you to the retailer.
For more information go to: shopnice.co.nz