California

California businesses could take a profits hit with self-checkout elimination

Published

2 hours ago

July 18, 2024

California businesses could take a profits hit with self-checkout elimination

President and founder of Nicholas Wealth Management David Nicholas says the U.S. consumer is ‘singlehandedly carrying the global economy on its back’ in spite of inflation on ‘Varney & Co.’

California businesses are at risk of taking another financial hit, according to industry experts. This time, it’s because of a proposed bill that’s aimed at eliminating self-checkout.

The goal of Senate Bill 1446 is to eliminate theft, which has been tied in part to self-checkout stations, but industry experts argue this bill could pile on significant costs for business owners.

According to a summary of the proposed legislation, if passed, grocery or retail drug establishments would be prohibited from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are met.

Some of these conditions are that no more than two self-service checkout stations can be monitored by any one employee and the employee has to be relieved of all other duties,

CVS ENGAGING WITH AGS ON RETAIL THEFT; WORKING TO ‘DISMANTLE THESE CRIMINAL OPERATIONS’

NCR Voyix CEO and member of the National Retail Federation board of directors, David Wilkinson, says the bill will not only frustrate customers because it reduces choice, but it will “lead to higher operational costs that will be passed to consumers.”

NCR Voyix is a leading global provider of digital commerce solutions for the retail, restaurant and digital banking industries.

According to an economic analysis of SB 1446, conducted by Encina Advisors, LLC on behalf of the California Foundation for Commerce and Education, businesses would need approximately 10,200 additional cashiers under the mandate. That would result in at least $497.1 million in additional costs falling upon grocery retailers annually, according to the findings, obtained by Fox Business.

A woman scans a product at a self-service checkout in a Rewe store. The supermarket chain Rewe will be relying even more heavily on self-service checkouts in future. (Oliver Berg/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“While tackling retail theft is crucial, there are unintended consequences,” Wilkinson said.

DOLLAR GENERAL DROPS SELF-CHECKOUT AT HUNDREDS OF STORES TO REDUCE THEFT

Given that it insists on one employee for every two self-checkout stations, those employees are stuck at the machines instead of helping customers, he added.

He is also “concerned with the undertones of this bill that could potentially ask store associates to act as security guards,” Wilkson said.

Mature woman scanning groceries at self checkout line in Costco, Palm Beach, Florida. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

Instead, Wilkson said stores need to “embrace tech to help solve the problem.”

GROCERY STORE CHAIN DITCHES SELF-CHECKOUT AFTER SHOPPER BACKLASH

“Fighting theft is a multi-faceted societal issue. It takes partnership with policy makers, businesses, and tech working together to curb crime which will ultimately help businesses,” he said.

Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told FOX Business, that the best way to tackle the issue is through enforcing shoplifting laws.

“Self-checkout lanes can save on labor costs, but increased theft is one of the tradeoffs,” Young said. “Companies can decide for themselves whether that tradeoff is worth it. The answer will vary from business to business. They do not need California’s state Senate deciding for them.”

North Miami Beach, Florida, Walmart customer using Self Checkout. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

Steven Greenhut, western region director of R Street Institute, doesn’t believe removing self checkout helps stores prevent theft at all. He argued that the “state and local governments could help by actually prosecuting people who steal stuff, but stores are perfectly capable of reducing their own shrinkage problem.”

However, a growing number of companies have been removing self-checkout aisles in recent months as a means to thwart theft.

Earlier this year, Dollar General began employing new measures to crack down on rampant retail theft that it says has been the most problematic problem for the business. Some of its measures included converting 12,000 stores away from self-checkout since the beginning of the fiscal year.

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In March, Target announced that it was limiting self-checkout to 10 items across stores nationwide.

That same month, Five Below announced it was reducing self-checkout at stores in an effort to prevent theft from cutting further into its bottom line.

The company has “now evolved” to associate-assisted checkout across its over 1,500 locations, CEO Joel Anderson said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

The California legislature is slated to reconvene on Aug. 5. The last day for each house to pass a bill is Aug. 31.

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California

String Of Earthquakes Hit Southern California

Published

9 hours ago

July 17, 2024

Press Room

String Of Earthquakes Hit Southern California

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — Thursday saw a fair amount of earthquake activity across Southern California.

As of 7 p.m., the U.S. Geological Survey had recorded four for the day stateside and one in Baja California.

The largest was a magnitude 3.5 that struck at 2:59 p.m., about 4 miles south of Borrego Springs in San Diego County. At 6:24 p.m., a magnitude 2.7 quake rocked the same area.

Find out what’s happening in Banning-Beaumontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A magnitude 2.8 temblor was recorded at 4:56 p.m., about 7.5 miles northeast of Trabuco Canyon near the county line of Orange and Riverside.

Earlier in the day, at 8:12 a.m., a magnitude 2.8 quake was recorded about 3 miles northeast of San Jacinto in Riverside County.

Find out what’s happening in Banning-Beaumontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In Baja California, a magnitude 2.5 temblor was recorded at 4:12 a.m. about 57 miles southwest of Alberto Oviedo Moto.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The USGS reports earthquakes that are magnitude 2.5 or greater.

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To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

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California

Adam Schiff gets California fundraising warning as he breaks with Biden

Published

16 hours ago

July 17, 2024

Press Room

Adam Schiff gets California fundraising warning as he breaks with Biden

Republican Steve Garvey’s fundraising eclipsed that of Representative Adam Schiff in California’s Senate race over the past several months, according to new campaign finance data. Garvey celebrated the fundraising report in a statement to Newsweek.

Schiff, a Democrat, and the former baseball star Garvey are set to face off in November in the Golden State’s election to fill the seat of late Senator Dianne Feinstein. Schiff is viewed as the front-runner in the deeply Democratic state where Republicans have struggled in statewide races. But finance data from April through June shows Schiff’s fundraising lagging behind Garvey’s.

Schiff’s latest fundraising report reveals that he raised about $4.2 million between May and June, while Garvey’s showed that he raised about $5.4 million in the same time period, according to the reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Despite the strong fundraising quarter, it remains to be seen whether Garvey can make the race competitive, as Schiff holds a strong polling lead and has outraised him in previous months.

Schiff still has more cash on hand. According to the filings, he has about $6.4 million on hand compared to Garvey’s 3.3 million.

“Californians are tired of the status quo,” Garvey told Newsweek. “They are tired of the division, they are tired of Washington, D.C., not working together, they are tired of Adam Schiff representing his party bosses rather than them, and now they are speaking up with their checkbooks.

“From day one, voters and donors alike have resonated with my message, that I am running for all of the people with an agenda of building consensus and legislating with common sense and compassion. I appreciate every dollar contributed to our mission of bringing civility and leadership back to Washington, D.C.”

Newsweek also reached out to Schiff’s campaign for comment via email.

On Wednesday, Schiff broke from Biden about whether he should stay in the presidential race.

Biden has faced calls to withdraw from the race after his debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month. He sounded hoarse and appeared to stumble through several answers, doing little to quell concerns about his age.

Schiff joined growing calls for him to exit the race, issuing a statement praising Biden as “one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history” but warned that the “nation is at a crossroads,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

“A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff said.

The latest polling of the race shows that Schiff remains the favorite.

The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,098 likely voters from May 23 to June 2 about who they plan to support in November. In that poll, 62 percent of respondents said they plan to back Schiff, compared to 37 percent who plan to vote for Garvey, giving Schiff a 25-point advantage.

Republicans were able to compete in some statewide elections in California throughout the 2000s, but it has become increasingly Democratic in recent years as the party strengthens its margins in suburban areas. Bien won the state by more than 29 points in 2020, and the state is not viewed as competitive in this year’s presidential race.

Representative Adam Schiff speaks during a Get Out The Vote event in Burbank, California on March 4, 2024. Schiff was outraised by his Republican rival from April through June, according to the latest fundraising reports…

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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California

California’s summer vibe is post-COVID. The data are not

Published

23 hours ago

July 17, 2024

Press Room

California’s summer vibe is post-COVID. The data are not

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, July 17. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

COVID is crashing California’s summer

The summer COVID bump is not stopping, unlike many of our concerns about getting infected from summers past.

I’ll include myself in that group.

During a journalism industry event I attended over the weekend, I shared a banquet room with hundreds of people, plus smaller rooms for panel discussions. I saw only one person wearing a mask and it stood out; there was someone being cautious at a level I no longer am in daily life.

If I hadn’t spotted that mask, I don’t know that COVID would have crossed my mind. I’ve been getting my boosters. I don’t mask up in my day-to-day anymore, but I still have masks on hand for air travel. Like many Californians and Americans, my guard is mostly down.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in March found that just 20% of U.S. adults consider the coronavirus a major public health threat. Just 10% said they felt very concerned about getting COVID and having to be hospitalized because of it, while 12% reported feeling very concerned they might unknowingly spread the virus to others.

Shoppers with and without masks at Santee Alley in July 2022.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

We’re now in our fifth summer living with COVID, and we’re over it — even as the data show the virus continues to mutate and spread more easily. The subvariants known as FLiRT now dominate the U.S. caseload, as my Times colleague Rong-Gong Lin II reported this week:

“For the two-week period that ended July 6, an estimated 70.5% of COVID specimens nationwide were of the FLiRT subvariants — officially known as KP.3, KP.2 and KP.1.1 — up from 54.9% a month earlier.”

California is one of seven states with “very high” COVID levels in its wastewater, according to the CDC, and estimated to be significantly higher than last summer.

According to state health data, the seven-day positivity rate reached 13% on July 8. Of course, that’s an undercount, since it does not include at-home tests or the people who catch COVID but don’t test at all.

But look around and you’ll probably notice that we’re traveling, gathering and partying like it’s 2019.

“Certainly, people are trying to get back to whatever life was like before the pandemic,” Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, told Rong-Gong. “We’re in a different place than we were before. … However, good common sense shouldn’t go out the window.”

The simplest safeguard tries to employ some of that common sense: If you’re sick, stay home and isolate. And get tested to have a better sense of what you’re dealing with.

COVID symptoms vary, but often include fever, aches, sore throat, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose and headaches. Although vomiting, diarrhea and stomachaches are less common, they can still be the result of a COVID infection.

Health officials advise people to wear masks for five days after their symptoms improve to protect others. To keep the elderly, immunocompromised and other high-risk people safe, L.A. County recommends anyone infected steer clear for 10 days after a positive test or the start of symptoms.

As COVID continues to rise this summer, we want to hear from you, newsletter readers:

How concerned are you about COVID right now? How often is it on your mind in daily life?

How have the precautions you take changed over time — or have they not? Do you think the average person is taking it more or less seriously than you are?

Share your concerns (or lack thereof) by taking this survey and you might see your and fellow readers’ responses in a future edition of Essential California.

More on COVID:

Today’s top stories

Donald Trump is surrounded by Secret Service agents

California and the 2024 election

Elon Musk v. California

L.A. politics

Sports

More big stories

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Today’s great reads

The Oakland Athletics and their design teams released renderings Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

MLB players with Vegas roots are skeptical of A’s relocation: ‘It’s a terrible idea’ Athletics owner John Fisher says moving to Las Vegas will improve the franchise, but Paul Sewald, Bryce Harper and other players don’t see it that way.

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How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

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And finally … a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! We’re running low on submissions. Send us photos that scream California and we may feature them in an edition of Essential California.

Today’s great photo is from staff photographer Christopher Reynolds of the colorful cliff faces at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. It’s on our new list of the 50 best beaches in SoCal.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter

Christian Orozco, assistant editor

Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

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