A newly proposed bill in California aims to prohibit grocery stores and certain retailers from offering self-checkout options to customers as a means to reduce theft.
According to Senate Bill 1446, grocery or retail drug establishments would be banned from providing self-service checkout options unless specific conditions are met. These conditions include limiting the number of self-service checkout stations monitored by one employee to no more than two, with the employee relieved of all other duties.
Furthermore, the bill would require grocers and certain retailers to evaluate the potential impact of using certain artificial intelligence or other technology that significantly affects employees’ essential job functions or eliminates their jobs entirely.
Democratic state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, the bill’s sponsor, stated that self-checkout machines lead to 16 times more losses compared to cashier-operated checkouts, resulting in approximately $10 billion in losses annually. Beyond financial concerns, Smallwood-Cuevas emphasized the safety of employees, citing theft and violence targeting lone workers who manage various tasks while trying to prevent retail theft.
The notion of removing self-checkout machines to deter theft is not new. Last month, Walmart announced plans to scale back self-checkout machines at some stores to combat theft. Similarly, Five Below has begun reducing self-checkout machines to minimize theft, transitioning to associate-assisted checkout across its over 1,500 locations, as CEO Joel Anderson noted during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
