Alice Springs crime: Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings lock away Listerine, deodorant, methylated spirits
As an out-of-control youth crime wave and surge in alcohol-fuelled violence grips Alice Springs, even something as simple as doing the shopping is getting harder.
This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles made an emergency visit to the troubled outback town to announce new restrictions on alcohol purchases.
Major retailers have been forced to take drastic measures, shutting their doors at sunset to protect staff and customers.
But locals have complained that the alcohol restrictions, which include purchasing limits, shortened opening hours and a ban on takeaway sales on Mondays and Tuesdays, will do little to address the underlying issues and simply make life harder for those doing the right thing.
“You are once again hurting our frontline and essential workers,” wrote one message posted to the Action for Alice Facebook page earlier this week.
“I am a shift worker in an essential service role in Alice Springs. Day shift is from 6.40am to 7pm. Can’t buy a beer. Night shift is from 6.30pm to 7am. Have to sleep between 3pm and 6pm. Can’t buy a beer. Hardly get a day off due to being understaffed due to crime rates, pay freezes. Thanks NT government and Albo. We keep the Territory running and get discriminated against as well. And now waiting to getting home to my house being broken into so they can steal my grog.”
Many of the children causing the problems are too young to buy alcohol anyway, and often resort to abusing common items like deodorant, methylated spirits, mouthwash and even hand sanitiser.
Since 2021, major retailers have kept such products locked away.
“They’re concentrating now on the alcohol — that’s another issue,” said baker Darren Clark, who runs the Action for Alice page.
“How does that fix anything? How does that stop a 13-year-old walking into a shopping centre with a machete?”
At the local Woolworths, cans of Lynx deodorant, bottles of Listerine mouthwash and even vanilla essence are tucked inside a protective glass display case, with a button to summon a store employee.
On the open shelves, Listerine “Zero Alcohol” is the only option.
“My mates come to my house and ask how come you’ve got all that deodorant?” Mr Clark said.
“When I go in there it’s such a hassle to get someone with the key to undo the cabinet, I just get 15 cans. It’s just a joke.”
A Woolworths spokeswoman said, “We treat product misuse seriously and intend to play our part in upholding community safety. In stores where product misuse has emerged as an issue, we’ve placed products in secure cabinets and behind our service desk. Items such as deodorant have been placed in secure deodorant cabinets in select stores since initial trials began in 2021.”
She added, “We continue to explore a range of practical long-term solutions that will enable us to safely display products on the shopfloor.”
A Coles spokeswoman said, “Like many retailers, we have been working with local community groups and police for many years in the Northern Territory to minimise harm caused by the misuse of a small number of products.”
She said on their “advice and consultation in 2021, we placed aerosol deodorants, hand sanitiser and vanilla essence in a locked cabinet in our Northern Territory stores, with customers seeking to purchase these products simply having to ask a team member at the service desk for assistance”.
“We also ranged our Northern Territory stores with only alcohol-free mouthwash,” she said.
“We continue to receive positive feedback from our customers about the measures in place who are very understanding about the need to support the community.”
At the local Bunnings, methylated spirits has also been removed from shelves.
Methylated spirits, as well as some other products including spray paint, are securely stored and must be purchased over the counter.
“The safety of our customers and team is always our number one priority, and our stores can work with their communities to develop processes for the access of products to help keep locals safe,” said Bunnings area manager Justine Burrage.
Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said he was “sceptical” the Monday and Tuesday bans on takeaway alcohol sales would work — and feared it may only lead to more break-ins.
“We’re already seeing people break into properties sourcing alcohol at 3am, 4am,” he said.
“What’s going to happen when they take alcohol away from these people for two days?”
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Mr Paterson stressed the crime wave was “certainly not isolated to kids”.
“Adults break in for alcohol and kids break in for cars and a range of things,” he said.
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