Grocers warned it might happen. Now, days after a new law regulating self-checkout took effect, several stores have shut down their self-checkout lanes indefinitely.
It’s happening in the city of Long Beach, California, where drug stores and grocery stores are now expected to comply with a first-of-its-kind ordinance passed last month, that imposes restrictions on the use of self-checkouts. Compliance, in theory, is as easy as maintaining sufficient staffing levels and limiting the number and type of products that can be purchased at self-checkouts. And most grocery stores in the city appear to have no problems meeting those requirements.
But the four Albertsons-owned Vons stores in the city, along with at least one Albertsons store itself, have responded to the new ordinance by closing down their self-checkout lanes altogether. Signs at Vons inform shoppers that “due to a new City of Long Beach ordinance, we are currently unable to operate our self-checkout lanes. The ordinance requires that locked or secured items cannot be purchased through self-checkout; as a result, self-checkout registers are unavailable.”…