The self-checkout aisle can be an efficient and time-saving way to complete a trip to the grocery store, especially if you’ve only got a few items in your basket and are in a hurry. However, it can also be a convenient avenue for shoplifters to slip through with plunder unnoticed.
Enter: Senate Bill 1446. Introduced in May by state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Culver City), the so-called Retail Theft Prevention and Safety Act would require every two self-checkout kiosks be monitored by at least one employee, and bars them from being tasked with any other responsibilities simultaneously. Today, by comparison, a typical supermarket with, say, six self-checkout kiosks might have one—often zero—clerks overseeing the section. Under SB 1446, that same store would require three staff members to diligently monitor its half-dozen kiosks. Additionally, the proposed legislation would limit self-checkout purchases to no more than 15 items and bar, not only tobacco and alcohol as they do currently, but other items subject to theft-deterrent measures, such as razors and printer ink cartridges.
On her state Senate website, Smallwood-Cuevas describes the bill as a way to “protect jobs and worker safety,” as markets would be forced to ensure “safe staffing levels” at a time when some shops that don’t sell alcohol have eliminated human checkout clerks altogether. She says it’s unsafe for the few remaining staff to police for theft when they’re potentially outnumbered by the perpetrators.
Unsurprisingly, retailers aren’t queuing up to endorse the bill, since many of them embraced self-checkout as cost-saving way to reduce staff, not maintain it. Opponents include the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Green Grocers Association and the California Retailers Association. They warn that SB 1446’s lasting effect will be to encourage retailers to eliminate self-checkout aisles altogether.
That possibility could ultimately dictate the fate of SB 1446. According to a survey conducted by Progressive Grocer and RIS News, 44% of consumers prefer the self-checkout process to traditional checkout.
Listen Like Thieves
Shoplifters share their secrets
The Loss Prevention Research Council asked 24 shoplifting offenders to share their secrets about theft at the self-checkout aisle. Seven said is was “very easy,” seven said “somewhat easy” and only three described the self-checkout as “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult” for a shoplifter.
Of the 24 shoplifters, here’s their preferred modus operandi at the self-checkout:
- Scan some items but not others (24 respondents)
- Switching labels (5)
- Tricking the scale (4)
- Other (3)
