Anger in the shopping aisles
There’s always been a frontline of people doing their job in the face of acute, often unreasonable, public anger. But that line has been moving alarmingly forward. It’s shifted past the traditional likes of police to hospital accident and emergency staff, ambulance personnel and Work and Income staffers. Now, for pity’s sake, we have wide-ranging accounts of supermarket workers facing more frequent and intense aggression.
The specific causes and dynamics of the Cumberland St supermarket attack in Dunedin have yet to be explored by the court process, so we should be careful what we assume from that case. What is clear is that it has drawn attention to the extent to which supermarket staff nationwide have been confronted by mounting physical and verbal intimidation.
Gone are the times when supermarkets were, at worst, a place of toddler tantrums and the protestations of the occasional accused shoplifter.
Truth to tell, we probably knew this already. Hands up those of us who have lately witnessed behaviour ranging from rude to obnoxious to belligerent? It has reached the stage where Countdown is now considering trialling body cameras.
When we look for reasons then, certainly, the more commonplace presence of pharmacies within the markets, and also the volatilities that can arise from people with mental health problems, are in the mix of issues. Shamefully, so is acidic racism.
But the spectrum of bad behaviours to some extent reflects that people haven’t been coping well with the particular stresses of recent times. The problems intensified during lockdown and have been at a sustained level since then, perhaps partly because of mounting frustrations about the stock control issues many retailers have been experiencing.
None of which is remotely an excuse. In fact, we need to be honest about the extent to which the increased climate of bellicose behaviour tells a tale of increasing indulgence.
Haven’t we become a society of shortened fuses? One where people are more willing not simply to express frustration and anger, but to vent it extravagantly. Because, after all, so many others are at it. It’s more commonplace, so seems more acceptable. Yes, it’s a problem amplified by, but hardly contained within, social media.
Clearly, the supermarket companies have work to do to support their staff as best they can. Enhanced surveillance, perhaps including body cameras, may help in some circumstances, and there’s union encouragement to look at simply having more staff on the shop floor. However, it’s too narrow a reaction to look askance at the employers when the core problem is what’s behind the increasingly unhealthy mindsets of the people who are entering the shops. That’s an even harder fix, but it’s also where the real solutions lie.
Meanwhile, as individuals we might look not only to our own conduct, but also to our level of preparedness to help, should push come to shove. Amid the horrors of the Dunedin stabbings, police have praised the personal courage shown by people on the spot. We might all hope to be brave, or at least useful. Wise enough not to intervene in ways that might ignite violence, but helpful should it happen in front of us.
That’s something difficult to prepare for, but it also appears that people’s first aid training served to save lives, and that’s something in which we can certainly upskill ourselves.