Hate self-checkout? Well, how would you feel about it if your store gave you a 20% discount for scanning and bagging your own groceries?
A second state is now considering making self-checkout discounts mandatory, as well as regulating how many self-checkouts a store can have, and protecting shoppers who accidentally scan their items incorrectly.
Democratic state representative Regina Goodwin of Oklahoma has introduced what she’s named the “Grocery Store Checkout Station Act.” It’s similar to a bill proposed last year in Rhode Island, in that it would mandate at least one traditional staffed checkout lane per self-checkout station in all grocery stores. It would also offer self-checkout users a discount, but Goodwin’s version ups the ante – Rhode Island proposed a 10% discount, while the Oklahoma bill would require stores to give you 20% off.
The new bill also addresses an issue that Rhode Island’s version didn’t mention – what happens if self-checkout users are accused of theft. “The general public is untrained” at operating store scanners, the bill reads. And when checking out with random-weight items like fruits and vegetables that can’t be scanned, “there is great potential for a customer to accidentally type in the wrong code by accident.” So “if a grocery store employee accuses a customer of theft,” the bill declares, “an arrest shall not be made… until the mechanic of the machine conducts an examination of the self-service checkout machine for malfunctions.”