Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions

Abstract

Robberies of New Zealand convenience stores for tobacco products spiked between 2016 and 2017. According to media reports, many robberies involved the use of weapons and resulted in injury to retailers. We conducted a content analysis of all online media articles containing commentary about these robberies, published between 2014 and 2019, to identify the perceived causes of the increase in robberies for tobacco and remedies implemented or demanded. The commentators in the articles were categorized into three groups of stakeholders: elites, grassroots, and interest groups. Overall, there was a mismatch between perceiving the primary cause to be socially and economically determined and suggesting solutions that were mostly situational shop level changes or tertiary prevention strategies, such as more and harsher policing. A further mismatch was that existing policing policy was not adapted to balance the perverse consequences of the tobacco excise tax increases. Early commentators tended to deflect blame away from their own sector. Later commentary converged to agree that the high tobacco excise tax was a critical causal factor.