Scanning your own groceries in New York could soon come with a 10% discount. A proposal from New York Assemblymember Nikki Lucas would require certain retail stores that sell food, including supermarkets and big retailers like Target and Walmart, to give shoppers a 10% discount when they use self-checkout. The idea is simple: if customers […]

Scanning your own groceries in New York could soon come with a 10% discount.

A proposal from New York Assemblymember Nikki Lucas would require certain retail stores that sell food, including supermarkets and big retailers like Target and Walmart, to give shoppers a 10% discount when they use self-checkout.

The idea is simple: if customers are doing part of the checkout work themselves, supporters say they should share in the savings that self-service technology creates for stores.

Lucas wrote in the bill that retail businesses increasingly use self-checkout to reduce staffing and operational costs by shifting duties once handled by employees onto consumers. The proposal argues that a mandatory discount would recognize that customer participation.

The bill is still in its early stages. It was introduced in May near the end of the legislative session and would still need to move through committee, pass the Assembly, and then go to the Senate before it could become law.

Self-checkout has become a bigger political issue across the country. In New York City, another proposal would require supermarkets and pharmacies to limit self-checkout to 15 items and have at least one employee watching every three machines, with daily fines for violations.

Rhode Island has already passed a law requiring grocery stores to keep at least one staffed checkout lane for every three open self-checkout stations starting next year. Long Beach, California also passed rules requiring employees to monitor self-checkout areas. A similar proposal in Connecticut did not move forward.

For shoppers, self-checkout can mean speed and convenience. For workers and retailers, the debate brings up questions about jobs, theft, safety, staffing, and who benefits when technology changes the way stores operate.

Source: New York State Assembly