Children are being left unsupervised in Tauranga shops as parents use staff as a free childcare service.
Amid national reports of children being left alone in cars while their parents gamble and drink, local businesses, swimming pools and shopping centres are also witnessing children being left unsupervised.
Rebecca Basham, sales assistant at Kiwi Petz in Fraser Cove, said children from nearby Tauranga Intermediate School were regularly picked up from the pet store after school.
"Quite often the kids just come up after school and have their afternoon tea, until their parents come and pick them up," she said.
Miss Basham said staff didn't usually mind the kids in the store but they could create extra work. "It did start to become quite a hassle because we'd have to follow them around and pick up after them. We've kids in here all the time without parents - all day, every day, really. We follow them around because you never know what they're going to do," she said.
When staff ask the children where their parents are, they are often told they're shopping at other stores. Miss Basham said some children were left unsupervised at the pet shop "for ages and ages".
Brian Godfery, owner of Childsplay toy store in central Tauranga, said there were times he'd had children as young as 3 left unsupervised in his shop.
At Baywave the problem of errant children had been countered by new pool rules. Tauranga City Aquatics Limited chief executive Tania Delahunty said since 2009 the swimming centre had "got really hard on supervision rules", so lifeguards could concentrate on pool safety instead of babysitting.
Judy Shaw, owner of Clever Kids in the Bethlehem Shopping Centre, said kids wanted to be in her shop instead of being bored shopping or dining with their parents. "We do appreciate that children want to come to our store because that's what we are about. We appreciate parents coming into the store with their children but we discourage them being left on their own. I never ask the children, 'Did mum suggest this?' But sometimes it happens that mum's having a coffee and they come over. We appreciate that for a little while, and then invite them to leave - but I always make sure I know where mum is," she said.
"Technically it's illegal, but we're a real safe place."
Marie Mischewski, centre manager at Fraser Cove, said the problem used to be worse with parents dropping off their kids for the day with their lunch money. But while that was happening less now, many older under-age children were still shopping alone. "At what age are children able to be left alone in shopping centres? You do get 11 and 12-year-olds left alone by mum to go shopping," she said. New Zealand law says children under the age of 14 should not be left unsupervised.
Tauranga police Senior Sergeant Carl Purcell said leaving young children in stores while shopping or having a coffee wasn't a particularly safe parenting approach. "I suppose if there's no supervision, technically it is [illegal] ... but there's a difference between that and leaving them in a car. If you are within cooey and can hear them then technically you are still supervising them ... [but] it's not ideal and they actually shouldn't be using the shops as babysitters anyway," he said.