After Sunday?s violence at the Friendship match in St. George?s hardware retailers are rethinking how to deal with sales of machetes.

Masters Limited said they have been out of machetes for almost a fortnight, but will be looking at new ways of selling the knives, usually used for landscaping rather than violent assaults.

Manager Mark Stearns said he would probably look into keeping the machetes behind the counter.

But he said it would be problematic to try and discriminate on who to sell the knives to.

?I am sure that there are people who wear baggy trousers who also work in landscaping,? said Mr. Stearns.

?It?s like ?what does a thief look like? ? it is difficult to say.

?I think we will look into taking them off the shelves.?

Gorham?s Limited assistant general manager Henry Durham said people who wanted to purchase machetes at that store have had to ask the cashier for the item for many years.

?We have been doing it for six or seven years now,? he said.

?It happened after there was an incident where two men, who had cut each other up on St. John?s Road, came into our yard in front of the garden centre and one pulled a machete on the other.

?After that we decided not to keep them on the shelves any more.?

SAL Limited manager Floyd Rawlins said the shop has plenty of machetes on the shelves.

?We sell a lot to construction workers and Portuguese landscapers, but we don?t sell to many to street-type kids,? said Mr. Rawlins, adding he could not speak for the Devonshire store.