Tobacco tax worry for dairy owners
Dileepa Fonseka and Helen King meet families who live in fear.
Dairy owners across New Zealand are concerned that violent robberies will escalate following the increase in cigarette prices tomorrow.
At the same time, design experts are urging them to counter crime by decluttering and pulling advertising hoardings off the windows – saying shops open to the public gaze make less attractive targets.
The tax on tobacco products increases by 10 per cent for the second year in a row tomorrow as part of the Government’s plan to make New Zealand smokefree by 2025. This increase is due to be repeated annually until 2020, with a standard packet of 20 cigarettes expected to cost about $30, from tomorrow.
Cigarettes are often the prime prize of robbers targeting dairies.
But dairy owners are cautious about the calls to change their store design.
On a Monday evening in November, Hasumati and Nanu Patel were robbed for the second time in a month.
Nanu was pulling down the roller door to close up for the night when two men attacked. Her daughter sustained a broken jaw, and the couple, who have owned the Opaheke Superette in Papakura, South Auckland, for 27 years, were badly beaten.
Earlier, in October, two teens entered the shop wielding a hammer and knife and stole cigarettes.
At a time when overall crime has been on the decline in New Zealand, aggravated robberies have remained at a steady pace.
In the year to June, 800 people were convicted of robbery, including a large proportion aged between 10 and 16.
Hasumati Patel believes the increase in tobacco tax will cause even more aggravated robberies of dairies.
Despite this, she is reluctant to put in more security measures.
‘‘Everybody puts up bars, you know, but it doesn’t look nice.’’
Brian Squair, chairman of architecture firm Chow:Hill, thinks opening up dairies to public view might help.
Robbers might be deterred if passers-by could clearly see anything going on inside.
He also suggests reducing shelf heights to improve visibility.
Squair believes that since cigarette taxes are part of the reason behind the robberies, some of this money could justifiably be used to fund store security.
And the Government’s $1.8m Safer Dairies fund could also help with design upgrades, he suggests.
In Onehunga, dairy owners are living on edge after a string of violent robberies.
The Chhiboo family have run the Arthur St Superette for 20 years, and all of them have experienced aggravated robbery.
Muneer was 13 when he had a shotgun pointed at his head; sister Samira only just escaped after robbers tried to drag her back into the shop.
After the last robbery their mother is too frightened to open the shop alone; Muneer sits on the street corner keeping watch for her.
The family see harsher penalties as the only deterrent, and they believe that raising the cost of tobacco increases the risk of robbery.