18th June 2008

My abiding memory of Los Angeles during a stop-over in the late 1970's was that every shop that sold anything of perceived value (Liquor, pawnshops, jewellers) and of course banks had a burly armed guard standing or sitting at the doorway on the street vigilantly staring into the face of every passer-by. I haven't been back to the US since, but it would be interesting to know if the deterrence was ever effective and now some 30 years later if it is still the same.

In NZ we have almost got to that stage with unarmed security guards outside many banks, though one wonders how effective they would be against armed robbers. Dairies and liquor stores seem to be the easy targets at the moment mainly due to the fact they are open later hours. Why is this so? To make a living of course. The big chains can offer discounts and prices impossible for the small guy to match, so they open stores in residential areas where the Woolworths and Liquorkings find it uneconomic to set up. To be relevant the small guy has to open during hours that make it not worth your while travelling to a large store for one or two purchases. No one gets rich operating a suburban dairy or liquor store which is why a fair percentage are run by Asian immigrants. For them it is a job and a way to eke out a living. The supermarkets are managing to spread their tentacles everywhere and are open late into the night which will eventually make the corner dairy an extinct species. It's called "The Market". The former dairy owners have converted their shops from selling milk to bourbon because for them it is the only way for them to make an independant living and they are using the same reasoning for opening late hours as they did when they owned dairies. These liquor stores that have sprung up will probably end up extinct as well because the "market" will eventually allow supermarkets to sell hard liquor. Not today, or tomorrow, but it will come mark my words.
Meanwhile the tossers in parliament led by failed ex police minister George Hawkins have come to the heady conclusion that if they limit the number of suburban liquor stores this will limit the amount of crime being committed. You really have to wonder what goes on in their tiny little minds. I guess if you close all shops at 5.30pm as in the old days then the crime statistics for armed robberies of shops after those hours must improve. If the muddled thinking is that by not allowing suburban liquor stores to exist it will change potential "criminals" into sober citizens (when they can drive 10kms down the road to a Liquorking store) is Alice in Wonderland territory. Our statute books a full of stupid laws passed by sad politicians out of touch with reality.

TC