For months, KTLA has been tracking the problems with self-checkouts across the country—companies struggling with how to staff the lanes while also securing their products. Now, one Southern California city is seeing self-checkout lanes shut down entirely after ordering companies, including grocery stores, to provide more staffing in the lanes.
In July, KTLA reported that the city of Long Beach was calling for more staffing at self-checkouts. Dubbed “Safe Stores Are Staffed Stores,” the measure requires many large grocery and retail stores to maintain a 2-to-1 staffing ratio at self-checkouts—meaning one employee could monitor no more than two self-checkout lanes at once.
Now, some stores are shutting down the lanes entirely. At least four grocery stores in the Long Beach area shut down their self-checkouts—at least for the time being—as the new regulations took effect.
The Long Beach Post shows pictures of the self-checkout lanes closed with a sign reading, “Due to a new City of Long Beach ordinance (25-0010) regulating self-checkout operations, we are currently unable to operate our self-checkout lane.”
KTLA reached out to Vons’ parent company for comment, and they confirmed the move.
They say recent changes were made at the following Vons locations to remove self-checkout lanes: 101 East Willow, 600 E. Broadway, 1820 Ximeno Ave., and 5949 E. Spring St.—all in Long Beach.
The Director of Communications for Vons, Albertsons, & Pavilions told us, “These changes were made due to a new Long Beach City Council ordinance (25-0010) regulating self-checkout operations. The ordinance requires that locked or secured items cannot be purchased through self-checkout. As a result, our self-checkout lanes are currently unavailable.”
While the city of Long Beach is the first Southern California community to tackle self-checkouts leading to entire closures, we’ve already seen self-checkout policies changing across the US. Target continues to revise its self-checkouts. Some locations have cut down on the number of self-checkouts and limited the number of items people can check out with to 10 or fewer.
Walmart has cut back on self-checkouts in some areas and is also using something called ‘hosted checkouts’ where associates help customers to available registers and through the checkout process.
Discount grocer Aldi recently started getting rid of self-checkout lines. They told MarthaStewart.com, “…we have adjusted checkout formats in select locations to ensure we’re offering the best shopping experience possible while delivering exceptional value.” ALDI says self-checkouts will remain available at many ALDI stores.
All of this leads to the eventual question—is the self-checkout experiment over?
We asked KTLA’s Consumer Confidential man, David Lazarus. Laz says he’s not surprised that, in his words, “self-checkout lanes are on the ropes.” “Security and shoplifting concerns notwithstanding, the simple fact is that surveys find many, if not most, shoppers don’t like them. There’s a sense that you’re doing the store’s work without any benefit—other than the possibility of getting out of the store a little faster, which isn’t always the case.”
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