SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As someone who has worked in grocery stores for 61 years, Wally Wetter says he’s seen many changes over the years. Certainly, a big change he says is the self-service checkouts, a change he says he has embraced.

What You Need To Know

  • The National Retail Federation reports retail theft in the country costs retailers roughly $110 billion annually

  • Theft through the self-checkout machines and automation cutting retail staff jobs are major reasons

  • A senate bill aims to regulate the number of machines staff monitor to two and limit the number of items at self-service checkouts in grocery or drug stores to 15

  • Big box stores like Target and Walmart have already begun limiting items or taking machines away at certain locations for various reasons, including theft

“I use it every chance I get,” Wetter said. “They’re very efficient, they’re very well built, and if they run correctly, they’re worth their weight in gold.”

Wetter said he feels though the machines are vulnerable to theft.

“That’s the weak part about it,” Wetter said. “That’s the one weak link about that. Unless it’s being monitored. It’s very easy for people to steal with.”

The National Retail Federation reports retail theft in the country costs retailers roughly $110 billion annually.

Theft through the self-checkout machines coupled with automation cutting retail staff jobs are major reasons for a senate bill aiming to regulate the number of machines staff monitor to two and limiting the number of items at self-service checkouts in grocery or drug stores to 15.

The bill is alarming, said Daniel Conway with the California Grocers Association, who believes the bill’s measures won’t adequately address theft, and strictly limiting items at self-service checkouts will lead to confrontations.

“Our employees are going to be the ones who have to explain the number of items they have, restricts their ability to go through self-checkout,” said Conway, VP of Government Relations for the association. “And so for us, we don’t want our employees to have to enforce the law. We saw during Covid that it does not work. It often leads to disruptions and friction between our customers and employees.”

Big box stores like Target and Walmart have already begun limiting items or taking machines away at certain locations for various reasons, including theft, and Conway said letting each store choose what works best for them is the better path.

But members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, who co-sponsored the bill, said less staffing because of the machines already creates a precarious situation, according to spokesperson Rachel Fournier, a grocery cashier herself.

“It is so stressful to be trying to operate machines at the same time and having the customers be like, miss this,” Fournier said. “You’re just like, you’re ready to pull your hair out. It’s horrible.”

Wetter agrees the people who work the self-service checkout areas work hard, and said he believes economics plays a big part in retail theft.

“We are in tough times right now, and when times are tough people will steal,” Wetter said.

But for all the ups and downs he said of working in a grocery store, he wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.