There will be 24-hour security at Countdown Dunedin Central to support staff struggling in the aftermath of this week’s stabbing attack.
Some staff made an emotional return to the store for a blessing yesterday, their first time through the doors since Monday afternoon’s incident.
Four people remain in Dunedin Hospital today - two in a serious but stable condition and two in a moderate condition - after a man began stabbing people near the pharmacy area of the store.
The reopening date for the supermarket is still uncertain, and the union representing staff said some employees needed more time before they were ready to return to work.
"They have to have security or the staff won’t go back."
He said he had had trouble sleeping since the attack and was unsure how he would react when he returned to work on Monday.
Mr Said was in the storeroom when the violence began and thought there was a robbery unfolding when customers flooded into the staff-only area.
When the magnitude of the event became clear, he ushered them to safety before heading to the front of the supermarket.
Mr Said said what he saw replayed in his mind.
"What if I had walked into that aisle?" he said.
"It’s upsetting thinking about it all the time."
He described the store manager, one of those injured, as "a good chap" and said he was planning to visit him and another wounded staff member today.
First Union retail, finance and commerce secretary Tali Williams said Countdown had committed to 24-hour security at the Cumberland St store for a month.
The union would be pushing for that to continue longer term, she said.
It would be meeting Countdown senior managers on Tuesday to discuss general store and staff safety.
Feedback was increasingly also showing staff wanted the public to be kind and recognise that it was not acceptable to abuse supermarket workers.
"We’ve heard some horror stories around that in the past few days."
Some staff were still too upset to attend yesterday’s blessing, but dozens of others gathered at the store from midmorning.
University of Otago kaitohutohu Hata Temo was asked by police to lead the blessing and described emotional scenes.
"When you’re walking in there, you can feel the tension.
"It was only after I started my prayers that things started getting emotional - people started getting teary, crying."
That emotion was good, he said, because it was not good to bottle things up.
"It was good for me to do a few words to get all that out for them.
"They were on their way to being healed."
Countdown corporate affairs, safety and sustainability general manager Kiri Hannifin said in a statement yesterday the whole team appreciated the blessing.
"Our focus now is on helping make sure our team’s return to the store is as peaceful and as healing as it can be, and we would ask both the public and the media to respect our team’s privacy as they do this.
"We’re working on getting the store back in order and we’ll reopen for our local customers when we feel we’re ready to do so.”
Stores throughout the country had been inundated with generous offers of goods and support.
"For people who want to show their support, the most meaningful way of doing this is by continuing to treat our team with kindness in our stores."
