COSTLY CONSTANT CRIMINAL ACTS TAKE THEIR TOLL

 

SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS 

DOUBTS NANAIMO MOVE

The owners of a small Nanaimo supermarket, who moved to the city and purchased the business less than a year ago, now believe it may have been a mistake because of the constant criminal activity, mainly caused by drug use, they say, and the family is now thinking about moving back to India.

Ravi and Sarita Patel bought Superette Foods on Albert Street last November and have already spent $20 thousand extra to install a six-foot high fence around their parking lot and building and even added a security camera system. But Ravi says, "Just this week alone, we see the same male breaking through our fence twice - stealing some empty bottles from our loading bay Monday, then on Wednesday he breaks in again." "It's just costing us money to keep fixing the fence, thefts and now I'm going to be spending even more money to buy more cameras," says Ravi.

He and his wife wonder why the BC government is letting drug abuse go on daily in his neighbourhood, which he says leads to the shoplifting and theft from his business - as well as causing fires and fights nearby. "What the governments are letting happen is not right. "It  seems almost hourly fire trucks, ambulances and police cars are attending to chaos in Nanaimo and our neighbourhood. "All this could be solved by putting those struggling with addiction into a facility to make them better, and place those who commit crimes into jail," he says, "so the rest of us can work hard and live our law-abiding lives."

The Patels do not know how much more they can take before they are forced to sell and move - perhaps back to India - where they left just six years ago.

Last year, just two blocks down Albert Street from Superette Foods, The Friends of Haven Thrift Shop closed because of what its owners said was social disorder plaguing the area.

Just a couple months ago, in the same area, the City of Nanaimo contemplated building a fence around City Hall and its Annex parking lots - to protect staff from street disorder.

The building that houses Superette Foods has been a small supermarket and grocery store since the early 1900s.