The Harvey Norman CEO has suggested security guards armed with guns could prevent the wave of robberies at electronic retail stores.

NSW Police have set up a special task force after a number of JB Hi-Fi and Bing Lee stores around Sydney were targeted by African youths.

They stormed the stores in groups and stole tens of thousands of electronics and appliances.

Harvey Norman CEO Gerry Harvey tells Ben Fordham armed security guards work as a deterrent overseas.

“This is a new way of robbery. You don’t need to break in in the middle of the night, now you just go in and do this the way they’re doing it… virtually no chance of getting caught.

“In a lot of our stores overseas, where we’ve got the security people, they’ve got guns on them.

“Now if those kids knew there was a security guard there with a gun on him, they would not have gone in.”

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