The manager of an Alice Springs supermarket that was forced into a lockdown last last week says the government is not taking the incident seriously.

Northern Territory Police Minister Brent Potter has defended his decision to replace some fixed police auxiliary liquor inspectors (PALIs) from suburban bottle shops with a mobile police presence.

But supermarket manager Peter Holden rejected the idea that removing PALIs was effective after an "emergency" situation involving an "extremely aggressive" customer led to the store hurriedly closing on Saturday.

"There were two people assaulted," he alleged.

"We haven't heard anything from the government about about those two poor people who were who were assaulted.

Mr Holden disagreed with Mr Potter's statement that there was an adequate police presence at bottle shops.

"I think if Mr Potter went to East Side and talked to those people who had to deal with this on Saturday afternoon, they'd say, 'Well, it wasn't adequate — It was nonexistent.'

"We're asking that the police maintain public order outside the stores, and when there's a trespass in the stores they come and deal with that."

Mr Holden said police were contacted on Saturday but did not arrive until after the supermarket had closed.

Police have not confirmed whether the incident is being investigated.

'Experimenting with our town'

People's Alcohol Action Coalition spokesperson John Boffa said Mr Potter should live in Alice Springs for two weeks to witness the impact of his policy decisions.

"He's experimenting with our town," Dr Boffa said.

"We're suffering — we're the ones telling him we're suffering.

"He's not listening to us."

Dr Boffa said Alice Springs had experienced similar antisocial behaviour before, including when Intervention-era alcohol bans were lifted.

"We saw what happened last time when Stronger Futures was removed," he said.

'An all or nothing situation'

In 2019 a cap was introduced that limited retailers' liquor sales to no more than 25 per cent of total sales per quarter, but Mr Holden and Dr Boffa said it was ineffective.

"The 25 per cent limit is not working to the level of preventing harm, assaults, violence, more hospital presentations — how many more women are now in ICU?" Dr Boffa said.

"How many more presentations have we seen in the emergency department?"

Dr Boffa said Mr Potter needed to provide weekly statistics on Alice Springs hospital presentations so that the "crisis" could be tracked.

He said having PALIs in every bottle shop had been effective.

"If we don't have full lockdown, we actually have nothing — it is really an all or nothing situation, to have the effect," Dr Boffa said.

Dr Boffa said if there was no guarantee of full PALI coverage at bottle shops the government should buy back the licenses.

"Buy them back, for God's sake," he said.

"Let's just have the four main outlets because they're the ones that are getting full coverage all day," he said.