November’s failed ram raid on Kitchener Cafe’s bank ATM has already cost nearby businesses six months of restricted trading as road cones ban day-time parking and major repair work drags on.
Local business expects at least another two months of disruption – or more – with some local shop owners confirming repair bills from the raid are already over half a million dollars, and growing.
The Star was also told trading turnover for some Kitchener St shops is down by “at least 25 percent,” as road cones block off easy access – and with the cones and traffic control having so far cost $70,000.
One business owner was forthright about the impacts of the 10-tonne front-end loader’s attack on the ATM: “It’s a shit sandwich,” he said as he gestured at the lines of orange cones “calming” traffic and preventing ready access to shops and cafes.
Adding to the growing impatience with the on-going repairs and business losses is word from police that they believe they have identified the culprit, “but the evidence they have won’t stand up in a court.”
The would-be thief rammed the shop-front ATM, failed to breach its security, abandoned the loader and ran off past watching nearby Jimmy’s Bar patrons, hooded, masked and carrying a knapsack.
Eight hours after the aborted ram raid police told The Star they already had a likely perpetrator in their sights. Their inquiries continue nearly seven months later.
Kitcheners’ building owner Bruce Sullivan is painfully aware of the disruption to the whole block of shops, cafes and other premises.
“We feel terrible because of the disruption, as all the car parks are gone so all the poor (shop operators) along the block must be suffering badly – perhaps not as badly as we are, but people must be suffering (business and financial losses).”
The traffic control measures “do seem a little over the top. I can fully understand everyone’s frustration.”
As the builders “have been unravelling the mess (caused by the loader) they are finding more and more damage.” The loader’s impact had forced the left side of the cafe building both backwards and downwards, snapped wall studs along one side of the premises, partially collapsed a floor area when it snapped main bearers, bent steel frames on entry doors – all of which must be repaired or replaced.
“All those doors are crushed,” he said pointing to the main entrance “and only the middle (entry) door now opens. So they have all got to be replaced, along with the structural beams and a big chunk of the (cafe) floor.”
Also needing replacement: the front verandah, a “whole chunk of electrical wiring torn out of the meter board – so a whole chunk of the building has to be rewired. The list goes on and on and on.”
Insurance is expected to cover much of the repair cost, with Sullivan saying the company “suprisingly has been extremely helpful,” despite costs already “adding up to over $400,000.”
Insurance help had included allowing the cafe’s most damaged area to be shielded by an internal wall so the business could continue trading, although 20 seats below normal capacity. But he notes that fixing the floor, replacing the floor cover, relining a main inside wall and painting will mean probably closing for “three or four days.” Then the front verandah “has to be rebuilt.”
Asked how other businesses along the block were faring, Sullivan replied: “I can’t see how they’re not suffering the same level (of disrupted trading), or close, given a lot of the days there’s no parking. It can’t but have an effect on their business.”
Top end boutique The Grocer, across the alleyway from the cafe, admits to major customer access problems with the shop hidden behind safety netting and controlled pedestrian access to her location.
Owner Celia Jenkins is also on an insurance lifeline in her retail business – losing nine trading days in April alone – some of them for building work, painting or something on the footpath, where the front verandah has had a full rebuild after being shunted sideways by the loader.
“The length of time has been difficult. The repairs alone have been going since the middle of March and it’s now the end of May – still behind scaffolding. If I didn’t have insurance I’d be very stressed,” she said.
The good news? “My scaffolding could be coming down in the next week or so. But all the way along I haven’t really known what’s happening (with the repair programme), so it’s very hard to plan as obviously I have perishable food in my stock.
“So working out how much and when to order has been diffcult and there’s been a bit of stock that’s been unable to be sold because of ‘best before’ dates and that sort of thing,” she added.
Some days when forced to close by building work or holidays, revenue “has been zero. I even had Easter Eggs that did not sell!”
Another business knock-on effect was to local suppliers who sell goods to The Grocer – “like fresh flowers, Parkvale Manor – and the person who works for me, there is less revenue for them and other Martinborough suppliers.”
With all the carparks taken out, shops along the block have access cut off. Scaffolding, safety netting, several building trucks, a concrete truck and traffic control truck mean “you can’t even see the building,” she added.
With the footpath in front of the shop blocked by traffic control measures, Jenkins said she can see pedestrians “walking past (on the roadway) but they’re not coming past my window to be attracted in.”
Jenkins said with business interruption insurance “I hopefully will get reimbursed by the insurance company for some of my loss.”
The ATM machine was damaged and tilted backwards by the loader’s impact, which meant the cash it contained would have been stained and unusable if the ram-raider had cracked it open.
ANZ Bank, owners of the ATM, are ready to reinstall a machine as soon as possible, given its cash throughput “is on a par with any machine they have in Queenstown,” Sullivan said.
New shop owner protections coming?
Two staff from the Retail Crime Ministerial Advisory Group were in Martinborough May 22, discussing potential fresh measures to help protect robbery/assault victims like shop owners.
Kitcheners Cafe’s Bruce Sullivan met the pair for an hour to discuss the issue of extending self-defence law to allow victims to legally defend themselves. Currently, the law regards items like bats, pieces of wood, even cans of pepper spray sitting in easy reach as illegal. New law in Western Australia is seeking to help protect shop owners with pepper spray and stun guns, Sullivan noted.
“You should be able to defend your property and your family,” he said, which would be better than a bat or hockey stick – or the “hands up, ‘you can take it,’” which applies at present.
The duo are reported to be collating ideas and feedback to develop new proposals for ministers.
Sullivan’s suggestion: Martinborough needs its local police officer back.
