Wandering down to the local dairy has long been a rite of passage for Kiwi kids but fears about crime in Auckland appear to be partly behind a community's attempt to block a new store.
Transport and health issues are mentioned in submissions against the Waiuku shop, but some have also raised fears about violent burglaries and thefts.
The humble Kiwi dairy - who wouldn't want such convenience around the corner? Well in Waiuku, south of Auckland, some don't.
It might look like the perfect site for a community convenience store, but what it's become is a catalyst for their concerns about safety as well as crime.
Road safety and health issues are a big part of the problem, but some submissions fear burglaries and thefts.
"As I said before, pilfering. I mean, the kids will go down and take whatever they want and the law doesn't do much to stop them anyway, and the police are run down. You don't see very many policemen around here, because they're too busy," said Waiuku resident Alex McDonald.
Kreas Padayachee is the principal at View Road School, and health concerns - the presence of fizzy, pies, vapes, you name it - are front of mind. So too are transport issues.
"We've had two kids have near misses this year, and we've had one that was hit by a car the end of last year," Padayachee said.
But what he calls anti-social behaviour is also a contributor to the school's opposition.
"Around us we have vapes, we have dairies down the road that sell, sort of, contrary items and what that does attract is it does attract, sort of, negative role models in our community to a single space," Padayachee said.
Waiuku local Colin Hamilton owns two properties next to the site and shares the school's traffic worries.
"They walk to school past where the dairy will be, interaction with vehicles that sort of thing," he said.
But he too says crime is well and truly on locals' minds - their concerns come at a time when crime in Tāmaki Makaurau is spiking - within Auckland Council boundaries thefts alone are up nearly 30 percent for the year to March.
"There could be a burglary within school hours, you know, people are a bit worried about it," Hamilton said.
They are indeed - this quiet, innocuous-looking site has attracted 30 submissions, 29 against for a variety of reasons.
The Kiwi dairy suddenly the source of so much uproar.
