A new bill proposed in California could prohibit grocery stores and some retailers from offering self-checkout options to customers in an effort to reduce theft.
Senate Bill 1446 would “prohibit grocery stores and retail drug stores from offering self-service checkout options to customers unless certain conditions are met,” according to a summary of the proposed bill.
Among these conditions, according to the bill’s summary, are that an employee can only supervise no more than two self-service cash registers and that the employee must be relieved from all other duties. Can be mentioned.
Grocery stores and some retailers also require the use of certain artificial intelligence and other technologies that “significantly impact an employee’s essential job functions” or completely eliminate an employee’s job. The potential impact of
Democratic state Sen. Laura Smallwood Cuevas, who sponsored the bill, said self-checkouts cause 16 times more losses than cashier checkouts.
According to Smallwood-Cuevas, these cash registers cost businesses about $10 billion a year.
In addition to losing profits, they are also concerned about keeping their employees safe as thefts have skyrocketed within the industry.
“As self-checkout systems become more common, loan employees are being forced to stock merchandise, operate checkout stations, and serve customers,” as well as “attempt to monitor stores for retail theft.” This makes them easy targets for theft and violence. Smallwood-Cuevas said.
FOX Business has reached out to Smallwood-Cuevas’ office for comment.
The idea of removing shelf checkout machines to prevent theft is not new. Last month, Walmart announced it would reduce the number of self-checkout machines at some stores, citing an effort to prevent theft.
Five Below also began reducing self-checkout machines to reduce theft and has “evolved” to associate checkout in more than 1,500 stores, CEO Joel Anderson said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. said.
FOX Business’ Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.
