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OLYMPIA – Proposed legislation, House Bill 1739, would establish rules for when and how self-checkout stands could be used in grocery stores. If passed, self-checkouts could only be used when a regular checkout lane is open. An employee who monitors self-service lanes would have to do so exclusively, and be limited to supervising a maximum of two stands. For their part, customers would be limited to bringing just 15 items to check out.
The regulations would apply to grocery stores over 15,000 thousand square feet in size, but not to any bulk goods stores with memberships.
“There have been a lot of challenges across Washington for grocery workers with unchecked automation and chronic understaffing,” said prime sponsor State Rep. Mary Fosse (D-Everett).
At a House Committee on Labor and Workforce Standards hearing Feb. 11, Fosse said she wants a conversation about making sure the self-checkout technology supports clerks.
“We know it can be a convenience, but when it’s used to–as a way to eliminate workers and cut labor costs, that’s when it really puts workers and customers at risk,” she said.
Grocery workers testified in support of the regulations, saying self-checkout makes them unsafe and overwhelmed.
Organizations representing grocery stores said other policies can better address theft and worker safety, and the bill is ultimately just too restrictive.
“Removing the flexibility that they have to meet staffing demands, customer demands and the other variables that come with operating stores,” said Brandon Houskeeper with the Northwest Grocery Retail Association. “Including things like when stores are busier during holiday seasons, when stores are slower different times of the day.”
Albert James is a reporter covering state government as part of the Murrow News Fellowship program – a collaborative effort between news outlets statewide and Washington State University.
This story has been shortened for print from its original.
