running a business<\/a> in Melbourne now.<\/p>\n\u201cThe biggest concern an independent shopkeeper would have is a few kids stealing some lollies. That’s not the case anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is far more violent and scary now. It\u2019s life threatening. We\u2019ve gone from kids stealing a few lollies to kids carrying weapons and threatening peoples lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re terrified, and so they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Herald Sun visited Mr Morgan\u2019s Melton store on Friday, where he asked his staff to call police to attend to a drunk and half-naked man loitering outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had people with machetes threaten staff so they can steal whatever they want,\u201d Mr Morgan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty confronting for a teenager to be spat at, or having a knife held to them. And we\u2019ve had guns involved as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt becomes hard to find people who actually want to work, their parents have to make a decision whether they want their 15 or 16-year-old working on the frontline and dealing with that kind of behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Morgan said costs associated with monitoring and preventing crime were soaring. <\/p>\n
He said he often watches the live CCTV feeds from his home in case his store comes under attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything relating to shoplifting is costing us $1 million a year now. Prior to Covid, it was dramatically less,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are threatened, we\u2019ve got illicit tobacconists all around us, so that brings a lot of crime in itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go to bed every night wondering if I\u2019m going to get a call. If there\u2019s going to be a fire, it can destroy a business overnight. You\u2019re not going to get any insurance for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re worrying 24\/7 if you\u2019re in business this day and age, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 30-plus businesses were asked, on a scale of one to 10, how significant retail crime and safety concerns were for them in 2026.<\/p>\n
The average response was an 8-out-of-10, and they said their answer would have been much lower five years ago.<\/p>\n
They said their most pressing issue was operating near an illicit tobacconist \u2014 in case of a fire \u2014 while theft and the safety of staff were their second biggest worries. <\/p>\n
More than half (52 per cent) said their shops had been damaged while 20 per cent said their staff had been attacked with weapons. <\/p>\n
Three-quarters said crime was \u201cmuch worse\u201d than five years ago, and 62 per cent had considered waving the white flag as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Terrified traders have been forced to install \u201cpanic buttons\u201d as they endure daily firebombings, violent assaults, ram 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