Darwin ice cream shop owner Johnn Koenig said he and his staff have had their lives threatened, been sworn at and been spat on while at work.
Frustrated by his current situation , Mr Koenig is considering an unlikely adjustment to his business
"I'd be the only gelati shop in the world to have security on premises," he said.
For Mr Koenig, the anti-social behaviour is getting to a point that is out of control.
"People get spat on, abused, knives pulled out on them — it's pretty scary at times," he said.
"I do have two 15-year-old boys who work for me, they constantly receive death threats.
"15-year-old children shouldn't have to put up with that."
His situation is not unique.
A survey conducted by the Northern Territory branch of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) found that in the past 12 months, its members have experienced racial abuse, had food and drinks thrown at them and seen people armed with weapons fight in their workplaces.
The survey also found workers had seen an 85 per cent increase in instances of abuse directed towards them by patrons.
Union, Chamber of Commerce demand legislative change
The situation has led to an unlikely alliance between the union representing shop workers and the NT Chamber of Commerce.
Both bodies want it to become easier for businesses to ban problem customers from entering the store by reforming the Northern Territory's Trespass Act.
"We're at the opposite ends of a lot of issues, but when it comes to amending the Trespass Act and protecting workers in their workplace, we have found common ground on this," union spokesman Shlok Sharma said.
The changes unions and businesses want would simplify the way in which an abusive customer could be banned from entering a store.
Under the current legislation, people charged with trespassing can defend the charge if they prove that they "did not see and could not reasonably be assumed to have seen the [trespass] notice posted on the land".
Mr Sharma said this means it's difficult to legally enforce a verbal ban placed on someone from entering a store.
"Part of the impracticalities is down to the fact that to have any effect, business owners have to serve a written notice on a violent and abusive customer," he said.
"No business owner in their right mind would ever engage anybody because they might suffer harm themselves."
Mr Sharma said being able to serve a ban verbally, and then doing a statutory declaration should be sufficient.
"We want the ambiguity cleared up in the act so businesses have more discretion to ban violent and abusive customers without necessarily having to engage them and to clear up the ambiguity [around] whether they can do it verbally," he said.
'People will have to reduce their trading hours'
As the Northern Territory's hospitality industry continues to grapple with staff shortages, the NT Chamber of Commerce's Nicole Walsh said the legislative changes were important to ensuring businesses didn't lose more staff.
"This has a really big impact," she said.
"If people feel unsafe in that work environment, they're not going to want to be in that workplace."
Alice Springs has faced an escalating crime wave in recent months, with a police operation being launched in November aimed at curbing it.
Sam Edelmen, who runs a fast-food restaurant in the town, said crime and anti-social behaviour could make existing staffing shortages worse.
"It discourages people from wanting to work in retail and food and other businesses that are impacted," Mr Edelmen said.
"I think it will result in less service, people will have to reduce their trading hours, because they don't want to trade at times when that anti-social behaviour occurs.
"Or they put more staff on for a certain period of time so that they don't have to have few staff who might have to deal with violent situations."
He said the Northern Territory's current trespass laws were "totally inadequate".
While the Northern Territory government had not directly consulted the SDA or the Chamber of Commerce, a spokesperson said the government was "looking at amendments to the Trespass Act 1978 to make the process of issuing and enforcing trespass orders more streamline, as well as fining those who break these orders".
The spokesperson also pointed to recently introduced measures including a reduction in the co-contribution for the "Biz support program" and a $2 million contribution to Victims of Crime NT.
