California grocery prices could rise if this self-checkout bill passes, grocers argue

It’s been a long day at work, and you still need to stop by the store on your way home.

To spare yourself more social interaction, you make a beeline for the self-checkout station, praying for a quick and painless transaction.

“Please wait, help is on the way,” the machine’s feminine voice coos, taunting you as you try desperately to flag down a clerk.

Following a failed, union-backed effort last year to regulate self-checkout machines, California Democrats are trying again to set guidelines they say will improve the efficiency of self-service stations across the state’s grocery, drug and big box stores.

Senate Bill 442, from Los Angeles Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, who chairs the Senate committee on labor and public employment, would require stores to have at least one dedicated worker there to help self-service customers. Stores also would be required to operate at least one traditional staffed checkout lane at all times and restrict the type and number of items a customer can bring through self-checkout.

“This is about supporting our workforce, to make sure that they're safe but mostly to also make sure that they're providing the level of service that customers expect and deserve,” Smallwood-Cuevas said on the Senate floor earlier this summer before the bill passed that chamber 26-10.

But the state’s business community, especially its grocers, still opposes the effort. Instead, without pointing to concrete studies or evidence, businesses say more regulations will drive up prices due to added labor costs companies will pass along to consumers.

“This seems like a clear example of why Californians pay the highest prices for groceries, regardless of what checkout line they go through,” said Daniel Conway, a lobbyist for the California Grocers Association, at an Assembly Labor and Employment Committee hearing in June.

It’s not surprising that Smallwood-Cuevas, a former labor organizer herself, is carrying such a bill, given her close alignment with the two union heavyweights cosponsoring the legislation: the California Labor Federation and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. She votes their way more than 95 percent of the time, according to the Digital Democracy database, and has received nearly $30,000 in total campaign contributions from the groups since 2021.

Under the measure, stores would have to display signs that limit customers to 15 items or fewer in the self-checkout lanes and also designate one employee whose only assigned duties are to monitor the stands. Notably, the bill explicitly states stores would not be penalized for failing to enforce the item limit, a condition business groups say is nonsensical. Proponents of the provision argue signs will increase peer pressure and self-policing without strict enforcement.

More items banned from self-checkout

Building on a 2011 law that banned the sale of alcohol at self-checkout stations, another union-backed effort, Smallwood-Cuevas’ new bill would expand the ban to any items that require identification to buy, such as tobacco products, and anything with anti-theft security devices that must be removed by an employee.

Stores that want to add new self-service checkout stations must notify employees and their unions in writing at least 60 days in advance or face a $1,000 penalty per violation per day.

Democrats largely have voiced support for Smallwood-Cuevas’ bill, calling it a much needed remedy for the headache that is self-checkout.

Democratic Assemblyman Ash Kalra, of San Jose, scoffed at Conway’s assertion that self-checkout is an efficient and preferable choice for customers and said customers often are forced to use them since stores have reduced the number of cashiers.

“I don't know if I can disagree with more points that were just made from our friends with the grocers,” Kalra told Conway during the late June hearing. “You must not be going to the stores if you think there's an improved shopping experience from these self-checkouts.”

Opponents have expressed concern that a newly added provision in the bill would invite local municipalities to pass their own more stringent standards, as the city of Long Beach recently did, requiring stores to assign at least one clerk for every three self-checkout machines.

Companies warn that such a patchwork of laws would make it difficult to run stores with multiple locations, creating a burden for both owners and customers.

“Only a uniform, statewide approach can provide the consistency that both employers and employees need to thrive,” wrote Ryan Allain, a lobbyist for the California Retailers Association, which currently opposes to the bill.

Even though Republicans admitted they, too, despise the self-checkout process, lawmakers slammed the bill for overstepping businesses’ authority to regulate themselves and raise operating costs that ultimately would be passed along to the consumer.

Republican Sen. Shannon Grove, of Bakersfield, called it “completely unacceptable” for the Legislature to prevent businesses from introducing automation that could lower costs after committing to an affordability agenda.

“It's a labor thing. I get it,” said Republican Sen. Kelly Seyarto, of Murrieta, on the Senate floor in June. “I'd like as many people to work as possible, but I'd also like to afford the groceries.”

Democratic Sen. Ben Allen, of El Segundo, was among a few Democrats to express slight hesitation about the state preemption of local rules but voted for the bill anyway.

“I understand you're going to be working with the grocers on that challenge,” he said in June.

The bill must clear the Assembly Appropriations Committee after lawmakers return from their summer recess Aug. 18 before it goes to the floor for a vote.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, wouldn’t state a position on SB 442, saying the governor’s office “doesn’t typically comment on pending legislation.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.