Tobacco Theft Hurting Retailers, Profitting Big Tobacco

ASH NZ strongly agree there needs to be a focus on retailer safety in light of the increased media reporting of tobacco being taken during recent retailer robberies.

What ASH NZ would like to ask is where David Seymour is getting his information that retailer robberies targeting tobacco have increased? As police data does not provide a specific breakdown of robberies by what item is taken (e.g. tobacco) and the latest police data on retail theft shows a slight decline over the last two years. (As per the NZ Police Data Website: here)

It is unlike David Seymour to be asking for more government resource investment into managing a product that kills more than half the people who use it as intended.

The ACT Party have historically stood for less government spend and controls on managing legal consumer products such as tobacco and more private sector freedom and responsibility.

Should it not be the responsibility of the ‘free market’ ACT endorses to also support retailer safety and security?

If the ACT Party were truly concerned for the safety of local retailers, surely they would take aim at and insist that Big Tobacco (A common reference for the three dominating tobacco companies in New Zealand, British American Tobacco NZ (BAT NZ), Imperial Tobacco (ITNZ) and Philip Morris (PMNZ)) remove their product from the shelves until they, at their own expense, developed a solution to keep retailers absolutely safe from unnecessary and preventable harm.

It might seem from the outside looking in that this is an opportunistic attempt to shift focus from the very real harms Big Tobacco inflict by killing over 4,000 New Zealanders each year (NZ Social Indicators, Statistics NZ, http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Health/tobacco-smoking.aspx) who die prematurely from tobacco-related harms.

After all, Big Tobacco still receive their profits from retailers after they experience a horrible crime, via the retailer’s insurance claim OR by placing further hardship on the small business retailer who pay their suppliers out of their own pocket so as not to make a claim against their insurance in order to avoid rising insurance premiums.

There are only two parties who profit from the retail theft of tobacco, one is the thieves and the other is Big Tobacco.

Let us rightfully place the spotlight on the Tobacco Industry who profit not only from a product that will kill over half its users who use their product as intended, but from the product they now claim is causing such social harms as armed robbery in our community dairies.

ASH is an independent voice for Smokefree 2025.

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