The City of Long Beach introduced a new ordinance aimed at curbing retail theft and improving safety in grocery and drug stores that use self-service checkout stations.
The ordinance applies to “drug retail establishments” and “food retail establishments.”
“Drug retail establishments” are defined as a retail store that sells a variety of prescription and non-prescription medicines and miscellaneous items.
“Food retail establishments” are defined as a retail store that is either:
- Over 15,000 square feet in size and sells primarily household foodstuffs for off-site use, or
- Over 85,000 square feet and with 10 percent of their sales floor area dedicated to the sale of non-taxable merchandise, including fresh foods and prepared foods.
The proposed ordinance requires these covered stores to always have at least one staffed, traditional checkout lane available whenever self-checkout is in use and limits self-checkout purchases to 15 items or fewer.
The proposed ordinance also prohibits the use of self-checkout for items requiring ID (like alcohol or tobacco) or items with special theft-deterrent tags.
Additionally, stores would be required to assign at least one employee to supervise every two self-checkout stations, and these employees cannot have other duties that would distract them from monitoring the area.
The proposed ordinance allows employees and customers to take legal action if the rules are violated, with escalating penalties for non-compliance, and protects employees from retaliation for reporting violations.
Covered employers will need to be mindful of the ordinance to ensure appropriate staffing.
The ordinance will have a second vote at the next regular City Council meeting, scheduled for August 12th. If approved during the second vote by the City Council, the ordinance will take effect on the 31st day after it is approved by the mayor.
At the first reading of the ordinance, the City Council requested that the City staff report back approximately 90 days after implementation of the ordinance to determine any challenges or changes that may be needed.
