Grocery shops have self-checkout facilities that are quick, practical, and generally simple to operate. However, they also serve as a draw for thieves, and California could attempt to take action if retail business losses mount.
State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas of California, the sponsor of Senate Bill 1446, would mandate the hiring of additional staff by large supermarkets and medicine shops to eliminate the majority of their self-serve kiosks. The law would impose certain requirements on self-service stations, such as allowing employees to oversee no more than two self-service checkout terminals and absolving them of all other responsibilities, according to Fox News.
According to some analysts, the law would lead to a shift away from labor cost reduction strategies. The bill’s opponents claim that it would subject retailers, who are already reducing the number of self-serve kiosks, to more needless rules. In fact, this is an obvious attempt to increase employment at pharmacies and grocery shops during a period when growing union labor expenses are killing them.
According to Smallwood-Cuevas, her bill would also protect workers against lone thieves. “Workers who are alone and have to stock products, operate checkout stations, and attend to customers while attempting to monitor their establishments for retail crime have become easy targets for theft and assault as self-checkout has grown more popular,” Smallwood-Cuevas said.
Target and Walmart both announced last month that they were reducing their self-service choices. Reducing or eliminating the leakage source would make sense, as self-service kiosks at retail establishments are responsible for $10 billion in losses annually.
The proposed law has many shops upset. Margaret Gladstein, representing the California Retailers Association, stated during a hearing in April that “these restrictions would simply serve to annoy consumers with no proof that they will minimize theft or give further security to staff.”
CBS News:
“People can steal products from the self-checkout part of the business,” the analyst stated, adding that customers can also make honest mistakes like improperly scanning items. “Retailers are actively attempting to decrease it, or in Target’s case, increase the limitations placed on self-checkout in an effort to lessen the losses they sustain from it.” After discovering that non-members were breaking in to use membership cards that did not belong to them at self-checkout, Costco increased staffing in self-checkout locations in November. Costco claims that the implementation of self-checkout contributed to an increase in shrinkage in 2023.
“In addition to completely eliminating self-checkout at certain shops, Safeway has implemented a receipt-scanning gate in self-checkout sections at many sites in California.” This is an additional method.”
If retailers are not extremely vigilant about cross-referencing items in the bag with those on the receipt, it is simply too easy to steal at self-checkout. Then there is the issue of self-service stations having only one employee tending to four or five separate kiosks. This is particularly annoying when you have doubts about a price or when an error code appears on a scanned item.
If you need to buy a few things, most people put up with the hassle because it is preferable to waiting in line. Retailers are discovering, though, that the compromise with consumers might not be worthwhile.
Author: Blake Ambrose
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