Bay Area city says its losing $400K in tax revenue per year now its eyeing self-checkout rules

San Jose could become the first Bay Area city to enforce self-checkout regulations in grocery stores and drug stores across the area, as the industry continues push the technology.The Silicon Valley city is looking to add regulations to the logistics of self-checkout areas with the hope of improving working conditions, enhancing public convenience and curbing retail theft.San Jose loses up to $400,000 in sales tax revenue each year due to retail theft, according to city officials.Understaffed self-checkout zones are also a reason for degrading work conditions and heightened safety risks for store employees, officials added.The San Jose City Council’s rules committee met Wednesday to discuss the new potential regulations.

The regulations included a mandated ratio of one employee for every three kiosks, limiting self-checkout transactions to 15 items or less and keeping one employee-staffed checkout lane open any time self-checkout machines are open.While Southern California cities, including Costa Mesa, Long Beach and Santa Ana, have already enacted self-checkout regulations, San Jose would be the first Bay Area city to restrict customer self-checkout, if passed.Some Safeway and Target locations in San Francisco have quietly disabled their self-checkout machines due to retail theft.The new regulations could raise grocery prices, create longer lines and put workers in danger without stopping crime, Nate Rose, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association, told The Mercury News.Rhode Island passed a statewide bill in June mandating the 1:3 grocery worker to self-checkout machine ratio, set to take action in January 2027.The United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) Local 5 — which represents a “highly diverse group of laborers in Northern California — created a petition in support of self-checkout regulations.The petition has gained over 1,400 signatures and includes a letter template that residents and retail employees in San Jose can send to C...