Editorial: Robbers strike and we all lose

As kids we were terrified of our local dairy owner - or corner shop as we used to call it.

It was urban myth that he carried a gun inside his jacket. It didn't stop people raiding his shop, often at gunpoint. That was Liverpool's Toxteth - a great city that I love, but like many big cities, crime was commonplace and there were parts of the city you would think twice about venturing to, even in daylight.

Contrast that with New Zealand where we pride ourselves on being a safe outdoors environment to bring up kids.

On Sunday mornings, my children often trek up to the local dairy for lollies and the paper. I've always felt grateful that they can grow up without sirens, riots and gunshots.

But lately I am questioning my confidence in the safety of that morning walk to the local shop. During the past year, the Bay of Plenty Times has reported how Tauranga dairy owners are living in fear as attacks and robberies become more commonplace with the robbers often armed with knives or guns.

On Thursday night, our journalists went to the scene of the latest robbery at the Welcome Bay Foodmarket, where men armed with pistols had made off with cash.

It was only 6.30pm, a time when people might be stopping to pick up milk on the way home from work or a snack after school sports practice.

Dairy owners often working early in the morning or late at night are a target for these aggravated attacks, and everyday people going into dairies are also at risk.

Panic alarms do little to protect them and us.

Arming the dairy owners will never be the answer, although I do remember enjoying the story about the Rotorua dairy owner's wife who scared off robbers by throwing tins of coconut cream at them. But, in reality, any retaliation by dairy owners would not only cause violence to escalate but mean that they too risk prosecution.

The recent measures by the Government to stub out smoking forces shop owners to cover their tobacco products in cabinets. It remains to be seen whether that law will have any impact on people who buy cigarettes.

I think it is unlikely it will have any impact on the robbers who come in to steal them. On the contrary, the rising cost and harder access to cigarettes may mean that more addicts turn to theft to get their nicotine fix.

Alcohol is also sought-after loot for robbers and it was disappointing that this week the Government did an about-face on its previous plans to restrict the sale of ready-to-drink beverages.

So what will deter the robbers? Tougher gun laws would make access to weapons harder. Tougher sentences would get them off the streets but perhaps prevention is the only answer in the long term.

Sadly the days of kids running barefoot to the local dairy may be numbered. If dairy owners choose to stay in business, we may find them behind security grills - or like in bigger cities around the world, these smaller shops will disappear.

The robbers not only steal cash and cigarettes, but are robbing us of a chunk of our history and community.