Spare a thought for our dairy owners.
Masterton Hospital Food Market owner, Rajesh Patel, says day by day, the safety of dairy workers is headed downhill.
Patel has been running the food market since 2005.
Two years earlier, his family moved from India to New Zealand when his sister married here.
He is worried about dairies closing as immigrant owners choose to move overseas.
“It is a lovely country, good country, clean country. We love it [here],” Patel said.
“I would like to stay here.”
Already, five of his friends have moved to the US, and other families have packed up shop to go to Australia.
Following the stabbing
of dairy worker Janek Patel in Auckland last month,
Patel has growing safety concerns.
“We don’t know when [attackers are] going to be coming, which day, which time,” he said.
“Safety-wise it is no good, and if you think about
it economic-wise, that is also a struggle. It is stressful.”
While statistics show youth crime is dropping, the focus on ram raids has led the government to invest
a further $4000 per dairy in its fog cannon scheme.
But Patel says it’s not enough.
“I think they need to look where it started, and where it needs to be looked after,” he said.
“This money is just like a cosmetic, it’s not going to be helpful at all.”
Patel wants to see parents held accountable for youth offending, citing 12 to 18-year-old offenders as a concern.
“Think about their parents, what they were doing, why
did they leave them alone?
“If [parents] are not
saying anything to [their children], then if they are doing something – it’s better to charge them [the parents].”
New Zealand’s prime minister has said that ram raid incidents have decreased
in November, but Patel said that misses the point of increasing occurrences over time.
“There is a difference between winter and summer.
“If it is winter, [ram raids are] high, summer is a
little bit lower.”
Patel says his business has been hit hard by rising food and commodity prices, as well as limitations on the sale of vaping products.
“Day by day, the price is going up and up and up,” he said.
“If you think about when the cigarette price started [rising], everyone started blaming us in place of thinking that it is the company’s decision, from upper levels.
“We have to follow that … we have to change the price.”
Patel says it’s the dairy owners who often find themselves in the firing line of customers, sometimes facing racial slurs like “go back to your country”.
“That sort of comment, it’s quite sad when we have to hear this.”
With 17 years in the business, Patel knows first-hand just how tough it can be, working 14-hour days with no time off.
“We are also human,” he said.
“Definitely, it is possible that we are going to be getting tired too, we are going to be getting sick, too.
“And if you are doing that many hours on the same spot, seven days, [over the] whole year, it is quite depressing as well. We are not spending enough time with our own family.
“That’s what we are doing here, for the community, in one box.”
And while these businesses play a vital role in the community, decreasing profits, combined with increased costs of living, are cause for concern for many owners.
“We also have a loan on our property, or if you have a house, we have to pay the mortgage too.
“How are we going to be running? How are we going to be paid off, the way it is, this recession coming next year?
“Now the interest rate is going up, with this income going down and living costs going up. That difference is quite heavy … this is stressful.”
Patel wants to see compassion from the community.
“If you get depressed by small things, think about the dairy owner’s life,” he said.
“Seven days here, [owners] can’t spend much time with their family.
“They are here all the time for the community.
“Think about covid times also. If we are in the shop, do you think my parents, mum or dad, my wife, my daughter, are feeling safe if I’m working in a covid time … definitely not.
“Everyone’s feelings about their loved ones are exactly the same, we need some love too.”
– Public Interest Journalism funded
through NZ On Air.
