Dairy owners protest outside Grant Robertson's office in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Dairy owners across the country have closed their shops and hundreds of people have protested in solidarity of a worker fatally stabbed last week.
Janak Patel, 34, died while working at Rose Cottage Superette in Auckland's Sandringham on 23 November.
A nation-wide protest began today at 12:30pm with dairies and retailers closing their stores and in some cases gathering outside MP offices.
Janak Patel died on 23 November. Photo: RNZ / Rayssa Almeida
In Auckland, people were protesting outside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Mt Albert electorate office while those in Wellington were outside Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson's office.
Others were gathering at a reserve in Sandringham to stand in solidarity for Patel, Sandringham Business Association Chairperson Jithin Chittibomma said.
Chittibomma was expecting at least 75 business owners to gather at the reserve.
A sign reading 'Justice for Janak' among flowers and candles outside the Rose Cottage Supererette in Sandringham on Monday. Photo: RNZ / Rowan Quinn
He hoped the protests would create change as dairy owners were angry at what had happened.
The more the incident resulting in Patel's death was thought of and talked about, the more the community thought it could have been avoided, Chittibomma said.
"I've been having calls from owners saying 'We want to do this. We want to shut shop'." - Sandringham Business Association chairperson Jithin Chittibomma
To have so many businesses shut their doors for two hours during a "peak" showed it was an important issue, he said.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"That's telling something."
In Sandringham, it was not just dairy owners closing their doors. An RNZ reporter in the area said a butcher, travel agency and local cafe had also closed to show support.
In a stretch of shops, just the pharmacy remained open, the reporter said.
Sandringham shops close their doors to show support for dairy owners and Janak Patel. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell
Paradise restaurant manager Waseem Mohammed said he was among the businesses who had closed.
"It's very sad news for our community. We don't expect this in New Zealand, especially Sandringham. We are not safe here, we feel really bad it's unbelievable the things that are going on."
He said the restaurant was robbed this year and a liquor store across the road has been robbed multiple times.
Mohammed wanted more security available for small businesses such as security cameras.
"It's for us to be safe so we can do business safely and we can grow and get more employees to work for us."
Meanwhile, at least 100 people had gathered at Ardern's electorate office in Mt Albert.
ACT Party leader David Seymour was among the crowd.
Protests against violent retail crime underway
People were waving signs, calling for more action from the government and some were wearing black arm bands as they mourned Patel.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
About 150 people, mostly dairy owners, turned out to the Wellington protest outside Grant Robertson's office.
Many of them had stories of robberies and ramraids.
They wanted to see better protection for shop owners, like fog cannons, better policing, and harsher repercussions for offenders.
Some say they have had to pay for many safety measures themselves and they do not feel police have taken their smaller crime reports seriously.
Urmila Bhana, who runs the Newtown Green Grocer store, said enough was enough.
"Throughout the years that we've been in business we've seen this happen too often and the frequencies going up. It doesn't need to be that way. I worry about everybody, to be honest."
Wellington Indian Association president Dipak Bhana said smaller crimes were being ignored at great risk.