You’re at work and you’re doing whatever it is that you do. You could be in an office, or in the dairy sheds. You might be driving a truck or a bus. Perhaps you’re a mechanic or a doctor or an accountant. Maybe you're on a construction site, or making coffee in a café.

You’re doing what it is that you do every day. And then someone bursts into your workspace, grabs you and violently, brutally slams you up against a wall, or a cabinet, or into the floor. You don’t know what’s hit you. You’ve taken a fierce blow to the head and you’re stunned, possibly concussed. And so you try to get up.

Just then, he comes at you again. This time you see the knife in his hand. It’s a big blade. A machete. Much bigger then any knife you've seen. And he’s huge. He's twice your size, easily. He grabs you from behind, lynches you around the neck and puts you in a choker hold. He's yelling. It's chaos. And then you see the knife again. He’s holding it in front of your face and as you're struggling and panicking because it’s close to your neck.

The man is still yelling. He’s with two other men. You can hear them but you can’t see them. Your face is smashed up, your head is throbbing. so much of your body is hurting, but all you can focus on is the machete in front of your face.

Ten or fifteen seconds have gone by. Your life is flashing before you. Your partner. Your children. What's going on? What's happening? There's blood streaming from  your face. You’re at work, for goodness sake.

And suddenly you're on the floor again. You've been thrown to the ground. The yelling continues, and then they're gone.

You stagger to your feet, there's blood on the floor, and you stand for a few seconds trying to work out what to do....and then you stumble off, holding your head as you go, and you call the police.

The sense of fear and violation that you feel will stretch beyond months. It will last for years.

How do you feel about it?

And how do you feel when I say this is what's happening in our Dairies? Our Corner Stores?

It's what played out at the Kingsford Supermarket in Mangere on Tuesday. Police have released the footage.

I challenge you to watch it. Put yourself in that shop-owner’s position and imagine that level of violence inflicted on you in your workplace. It made my stomach churn. The brutality of it. The suddenness. The hideous, violent coward who did this is devoid of empathy and humanity. The shop owner was a stranger to him but this thug wanted cigarettes so he put a hood over his head, walked into the shop, and attacked him. He wanted fags, and he was going to beat up whoever he needed to, to get them.

I've always believed that New Zealand is not a violent society. Sure, we've got our problems, but I think we're becoming increasingly more violent. This attack happened at 7.30 at night. The man was armed with a machete, for goodness sake. And this is not an isolated case. It's the reality our Dairy owners face every day at work. The threat of extreme violence. The threat to life is ever-present. Imagine working in that environment, day in, day out?

So what's the solution? Is there one?

Should Dairies stop selling cigarettes? Won't the thugs just go after the cash, then?

I watched that footage and felt incensed, and then I felt a huge wave of sympathy for the men and women working in our dairies and convenience stores all across New Zealand.

They, just like the rest of us, have the right to work in a safe environment.

They, just like the rest of us, should be able to go about their business at work without the risk of being placed in a choker hold and having a machete held to their neck.