The owners of a Canterbury dairy are so scared of being targeted by violent robbers they've stopped selling tobacco.
The Waikuku Beach General Store is the first dairy in the South Island to go cigarette-free in the interests of the staff's own safety.
Rising taxes designed to make smokers want to quit mean that a pack of cigarettes is now worth its weight in gold. Liquor stores, petrol stations and dairies are prime targets for thieves.
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Between June 2016 and the following May, there were 1237 aggravated store robberies in New Zealand - up 87 percent from the year before.
There is a fund for dairies to help pay for anti-burglary devices like fog cannons and panic alarms, but Cathy Farrell and Peter De La Mare aren't waiting for the Government to protect them, removing cigarettes from their premises altogether.
"For us it's a safety reason, that was our main concern in this area," Ms Farrell told The Project. "We're 30km north of Christchurch so it takes a while for the police to come out, and that for us is a main factor - keeping our staff and the community safe."
She says it's "pretty scary" to see CCTV footage of violent robberies in dairies just like their own.
"Recently we heard about the dairy up in Palmerston North, which had two robberies in four days. That's just crazy. We can't risk that. That would make us go out of business, basically."
The move away from cigarettes has been gradual, with the diary "slowly dwindling down" their stock.
"It is a serious decision, and if you're a business you've got to take everything into proportion, how much profit you actually do make off it.
"We're lucky enough that we have other businesses we can avenue in - we do takeaways; we do a breakfast on the weekends; we do ice cream; we do coffees. I can imagine dairies that solely do groceries and cigarettes would struggle with the decision."
She advises Waikuku locals they can still buy cigarettes from the petrol station on the main road, while Mr De La Mare says smokers in the area could always just give up the habit.
Newshub.
