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Costa Mesa has passed an ordinance that regulates staffing for grocery and drug retailers that operate self-checkout stations. The measure requires employee staffing and supervision of self-checkout, restricts certain transactions at self-checkout, and requires customer signage. It is similar to an ordinance passed by the City of Long Beach last year.
Costa Mesa’s ordinance takes effect April 28, 2026.
Covered Businesses
The ordinance applies to certain food and drug retail establishments in Costa Mesa. It applies to “Drug Retail Establishments,” which are defined as a retail store that sells a variety of prescription and non-prescription medicines and miscellaneous items. It also applies to “Food Retail Establishments,” which is defined as a retail store that is either:
- Over 15,000 square feet and sells primarily household foodstuffs for off-site consumption, or
- Over 85,000 square feet with ten percent of the sales floor area dedicated to the sale of non-taxable merchandise, including foodstuffs.
Employers should review whether their store format, square footage, and product mix fall within the ordinance’s definitions of covered establishments.
Requirements
If a covered store offers self-checkout, the ordinance requires the store to:
- Maintain at least one staffed, non-self-service checkout lane whenever self-checkout is available.
- Assign at least one employee to supervise self-checkout at all times and maintain a staffing ratio of at least one employee for every three self-checkout stations when operating two or more self-checkout stations.
- Ensure the supervising employee does not have other duties that interfere with direct visual monitoring.
- Post signage stating that self-checkout should be limited to 15 items.
- Prohibit self-checkout purchases of items requiring identification, such as alcohol and tobacco, and items subject to specified theft-deterrent measures.
- Post customer-facing notice about the ordinance and provide a physical and/or email address for reporting violations.
- Self-checkout stations must be located so they can be observed by employees and local law enforcement.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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