Countdown has launched an ad campaign reminding customers to be kind as they shop due to abuse staff are facing.
As part of the campaign, Countdown staff remind shoppers to "be kind" and shop safely by wearing a mask and scanning in.
"Our Countdown whānau is working hard to keep yours fed and safe," the ad begins.
Abuse against staff has ramped up during the Covid-19 pandemic, largely as mask-wearing and scanning in using the NZ CovidTracer app became mandatory.
The issue came to the fore in the wake of stabbings at a Countdown in Dunedin and the terror attack at Countdown in Auckland's LynnMall.
Countdown said abuse has become so frequent, its staff often fail to report it.
“Our team is subjected to physical assaults, threats of rape, threats to kill, punching, spitting, pushing, and of course racial and sexual, verbal abuse,” spokeswoman Kiri Hannifin said.
“It’s tough and it’s every single day.”
In May last year, Countdown worker Kalein Howard recalled how she had had a basket of tins thrown at her and how a customer was racist.
The abuse was so bad, she had gone home crying.
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"I feel disappointed that New Zealand's come to this. I don't remember it being this bad ..."
She said such abuse needed to stop.
"We need to make a change. This shouldn't be normalised ... We've got families, we've got feelings and we're human," Howard said.
"We're doing this for the community. This isn't New Zealand. Be kind."
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