Long Beach is first city in the nation to impose new check-out lane rules

In August, the Long Beach City Council passed a first-in-the-nation ordinance that puts new rules in place for check-out lanes in certain stores. Proponents say the new measure would prevent retail theft.

The “Safe Stores Are Staffed Stores” ordinance went into effect in September, requiring larger “drug retail” stores and “food retail” over a certain size to staff one employee to every three self-checkout kiosks, and locked items from being purchased. The ordinance also limits the use of self-checkouts to 15 items or less, disqualifies items that require customer ID for purchase, and requires stores to open a staffed checkout lane before any self-checkout stations are operated.

Derek Smith, political director for UFCW local 324, the union that represents grocery store employees and a sponsor of the ordinance, told LAist that workers were overseeing too many self-check out lanes, sometimes as many as five or six. Self-checkout understaffing “presented an opportunity not only for theft, but just frustrated customers who also might need help,” he said.

The ordinance applies to more than a dozen stores in Long Beach. In response, at least four Albertsons Companies grocery locations in the area have shut down their self-checkout lanes.

Opposition

In a letter opposing the ordinance from Aug. 12, the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce wrote they were disappointed that none of their recommendations for the ordinance, like a “150-day implementation delay,” were considered.

“ The retail theft component to this is really just a misnomer,” Nate Rose, vice president of communications for the California Grocers Association, told LAist. “The argument they've made is adding employees into the self-checkout will reduce theft.”

Actually, Rose said, most retail employees are discouraged by their employers to intervene in situations where theft is occurring.

The California Grocers Association had previously joined the Chamber of Commerce in submitting recommendations to adjust the ordinance.

“This will make life less convenient for shoppers. It will also potentially make groceries more expensive at a time when people are already severely concerned about affordability,” Rose said.

Smith, with the union, is optimistic the ordinance will have its intended effects and said the union is hoping to expand it to other cities

“I think it’s important that Long Beach isn’t the only city to do a thing like this," Smith said. "It’s about workers, you know, more than just Long Beach workers."