{"id":205955,"date":"2026-03-05T18:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/205955\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:27:17","slug":"anaheim-might-require-staffing-at-self-checkout-stands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/205955\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim Might Require Staffing at Self-Checkout Stands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officials in another Orange County city are considering requiring stores to staff their self-checkout lines in an effort to curb theft and customer anger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent months, a couple of cities in Southern California have started to regulate self-service stands at retail drug stores and supermarkets, with unions saying it will provide workers the help they need when stores are busy.<\/p>\n

Grocers argue the regulations will only leave customers paying a more expensive bill at checkout amid high food inflation costs.<\/p>\n

Anaheim leaders are expected to be the next to consider regulations after city officials in Long Beach and Costa Mesa<\/a> adopted their own ordinances regulating self-checkout stands at retail drug stores and supermarkets.<\/p>\n

[Read: Another Orange County City May Require Staffed Self-Checkout Stands<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"\"A Ralphs grocery store in Costa Mesa on March 15, 2021. Credit: GARRETT TROUTMAN, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, city council members voted 5-2 to direct staff to draft and bring back an ordinance based on Costa Mesa\u2019s new law as well as potentially expand it to other stores beyond supermarkets and retail pharmacies that have self-checkout stands..<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Norma Campos Kurtz, who requested the discussion with Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, said she wanted to debate a potential self-checkout ordinance based on her own shopping experience in the city watching older customers struggle at the kiosks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen them actually leave a cart full of groceries and just walk out because they\u2019re frustrated there\u2019s no one there to help them,\u201d she said at Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

Aitken said she wants to protect workers and raised concerns about retail theft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been there when the self checkouts aren\u2019t working, and people get frustrated and get angry at the employees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a ton of retail loss or else we wouldn\u2019t have such heightened security officers that are in our grocery stores so that just doesn\u2019t make any sense. I\u2019ve seen people weigh one banana and then put four in their bag,\u201d Aitken said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Councilmembers Natalie Meeks and Ryan Balius were the dissenting votes.<\/p>\n

Meeks said she doesn\u2019t want to put Anaheim businesses at a disadvantage and she would prefer for the state to implement a law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really am concerned with putting our businesses in Anaheim at a financial disadvantage with more burdensome regulations than just across our border, and making it more expensive for our residents to buy their groceries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Balius said there are serious concerns about retail theft when the self-checkout aisle is left unattended, but the government shouldn\u2019t meddle with the free market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnaheim should not be in the business of telling employers what to do and I think if the grocery and the drug store operators determine that unstaffed self-checkout creates safety risk or increase loss, then it\u2019s incumbent upon them to kind of change their ways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ordinance in Costa Mesa, the first OC city to adopt such a law, sets a one employee for every three self-checkout kiosks ratio, limits shoppers to 15 items at the self-service stands and bans them from buying theft-deterrent and cabinet locked products at self-scan counters.<\/p>\n

[Read: Costa Mesa to Require Staffed Self-Checkout Stands<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Mike Lyster, a city spokesman, said in a Monday email that there are roughly 12 drug stores, 8 general retailers like Target and Walmart, and 7 potential supermarkets in the city that could be impacted by such an ordinance but it\u2019s unclear which have self-checkout stands.<\/p>\n

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, a union that represents grocery workers, says the proposal will provide support for supermarket employees as well as curb shoplifting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen cities pass an ordinance like Long Beach or Costa Mesa, they will provide thousands of workers \u2013 union and non-union \u2013 with extra support and better service for customers,\u201d Jenna Thompson, a spokesperson for the union, said in a Monday email.<\/p>\n

The California Grocers Association, a statewide trade group representing hundreds of grocery retailers and suppliers, says it will hike up operational costs and result in higher grocery prices.<\/p>\n

Tim James, Director of Local Government Relations for the Association, said city officials did not reach out to them to get their input on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad council or staff engaged grocers, you would know that the regulation of self checkout is a failed policy experiment,\u201d he said at Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would know it has resulted in removal of self-checkout due to over regulation and uncontrolled enforcement. You would know data shows it has no impact on retail theft, with self checkout being the least likely place for theft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Ashleigh Aitken\u2019s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC\u2019s board of directors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.<\/p>\n

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