Santa Ana leaders are the latest in Orange County considering requiring retailers like grocery stores and pharmacies to staff their self checkout aisles in an effort to curb retail theft.

Grocers argue the new regulations will increase prices for customers and that cities are implementing these ordinances without seeking or getting their input.

But local grocer union officials have previously said that staffing self-checkouts help curb theft.   

So far, officials in Long Beach and Costa Mesa have adopted their own laws regulating the self-checkout aisles while Anaheim City Council members earlier this year directed staff to come back with their own ordinance for a vote. 

[Read: Anaheim Might Require Staffing at Self-Checkout Stands]

At their 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Santa Ana City Council members are expected to consider an ordinance establishing item limits, restrictions and staffing ratios for self checkout kiosks at local supermarkets and retail drugstore chains like Walgreens.

“Increased employee presence in checkout areas improves oversight and may deter retail theft, which has been identified as a growing concern in retail environments,” reads a staff report.  

“Establishing minimum staffing ratios reduces the burden on employees tasked with monitoring multiple transactions simultaneously and helps mitigate workplace conflicts.”

Mayor Valerie Amezcua and City Manager Alvaro Nuñez, who are bringing forth the ordinance together, did not respond to separate requests for comment Monday.

Nate Rose, a spokesman for the California Grocers Association, said officials are trying to copy what he called a “bad” policy in Long Beach without seeking input from local grocers, adding the proposed law will raise consumer prices. 

“Anytime elected officials pursue laws that increase operational costs, there’s just simply no place else for those costs to go, other than to higher prices on grocery store shelves,” Rose said in a Monday phone interview.

“One of the biggest issues we have with this is that they’re going to vote on this thing on Tuesday, and we’ve had no outreach at all to the group, to the grocery community.”

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, a union that represents grocery workers, argue these ordinances will help support employees and curb retail theft.

Jenna Thompson, a spokeswoman for the union, said workers who oversee self-checkout stands have multiple responsibilities, adding that such ordinances protect workers and customers.

“When cities pass an ordinance, they will provide thousands of workers – union and non-union – with extra support and better service for customers. UFCW members look forward to seeing Santa Ana pass legislation to ensure quality jobs and safe, positive shopping experiences,” she wrote in a Monday email.

Thompson also said city officials did seek input from the union and retailers are losing money to theft and passing costs to customers.

Under the proposed ordinance, supermarkets in Santa Ana will have to have at least one employee staffed checkout aisle before opening a self-checkout stand.

Stores will also have to have one employee whose sole responsibility is to monitor the self checkout kiosks and will have to implement one employee for every three self-checkout kiosks ratio.

The ordinance also establishes a 15 item or less limit for customers to use the self checkout kiosks and would prohibit shoppers from buying things like cigarettes and alcohol at the stands – something stores already do.

Violations to the proposed rule could result in employees or customers suing the stores with penalties of up to $1,000 per employee per day.

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.