A lot of residents in the Richmond District are eagerly awaiting the opening of the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market on 32nd Avenue at Clement. The large space was once an Albertson’s grocery that closed down in 2006. Fresh & Easy has committed to taking over half of the space, sharing the rest with CVS Pharmacy. They are expected to open their doors in 2011.
Last week there was a mention of CVS Pharmacy getting permission from the city to sell alcoholic beverages. Fresh & Easy plans to sell alcohol as well.
But there’s a unique twist to Fresh & Easy’s setup that challenges their plans for selling alcohol. All of their stores only offer self-serve checkout. In other words, there are no traditional cashiers, only stations where consumers scan, bag and pay for items themselves. You see this kind of setup at Target, Home Depot and other big box stores.
It’s how customers currently check out at the existing 126 Fresh & Easy stores in California. 11 of those are in the Bay Area, with plans for 2 more to open here in San Francisco in the Richmond District and Hunter’s Point.
But Assemblywoman Fiona Ma isn’t crazy about self-service checkout when it comes to alcohol purchases, due to concerns that it makes it too easy for underage minors to purchase alcohol. To that end, she has introduced a measure, AB183, that would ban purchasing alcohol at self-checkout stands.
Fresh & Easy doesn’t agree with Ma’s measure, telling the Chronicle:
“Simply put, AB183 is a solution in search of a problem,” said Roberto Munoz, a spokesman for the El Segundo (Los Angeles County) company. He said the stores have “solid protections in place” against minors purchasing alcohol, including a valid ID requirement and a “freeze” or “lockout” on alcohol payments before an actual store clerk signs off on them.
Opponents of the measure say this is another tactic aimed to disrupt the non-union supermarket chain, which has been protested against and boycotted by UFCW Local 324 in Southern California for the past few years. The Chronicle writes, “Some have suggested that the union, with ties to state Democratic lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker John Pérez of Los Angeles, a former UFCW political director, has an influential stake in the legislation.”
Ma’s response? “The union is definitely one of our supporters,” Ma said, “but not one of the main drivers.”
If the measure were to pass in the state legislature, retailers like Fresh & Easy would have to change their checkout system for alcohol purchases. That means hiring more people at all of their California locations, resulting in higher overhead to keep their stores open.
An almost identical measure was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, but some say with Democrat Jerry Brown at the helm, this could get the votes it needs.
It’s already been a struggle in the current economy for Fresh & Easy to continue expanding their franchise into the Bay Area. According to the Chronicle, Fresh & Easy is expected to only break even by 2013, and they suffered a loss of $296 million in the last fiscal year.
But Fresh & Easy is not deterred and will move forward with their planned expansions, with or without the new legislation.
Fresh & Easy spokesman Munoz told the Chronicle, “The Bay Area as it is is a key region for our business. We have been very pleased with the stores we’ve recently opened there, and they are performing well.”
Sarah B.
[via SFAppeal]
Don’t most kids just steal booze from their parents or their friend’s parents?
Good for Assemblywoman Ma. Self service checkout for liquor makes no sense and should not be permitted.
Actually, I’ve purchased alcohol via a self service kiosk here in California (at a Safeway I believe) and there were a number of checks in place to keep minors from purchasing the products. Not the least of which was a complete “shut down” of the process until an actual human being came to check my id and entered a code to allow the sale. No different than if I’d bought via a regular check out process, and probably better as it brought increased scrutiny to the sale. I’d recommend that Assemblywoman Ma actually tests the process first, before moving on this legislation. It’s time to move forward, and there’s enough issues that businesses have to face these days. Lets get Fresh and Easy open!
Power politics pure and simple. Here we have a store that would create new jobs, give neighbors more food choices and has a proven self-checkout process (across 126 stores!), yet a politician would sacrifice this to earn political points. Disgusting.
Has Ma never been to a store with self-checkout? It’s not like you can just check out with alcohol or walk out with no one noticing.
Agree with Steve that it’s probably actually harder to sneak alcohol through the self checkouts, because it actually calls attention with lights and sound, where a regular checker can just slide it through quickly.
Hi Sarah,
The SAME with me — I’ve lived here more than 30 years and walk by it all the time! THANK you for doing this! I was supposed to do something for a friend, but it may well not be necessary and I’d love to join you!
The Albertsons on Fulton has self checkout aisles and sells alcohol. How do they handle this situation?
Wow, the Albertson’s store closed in 2004? It took that long for someone to occupy the space.
I don’t think the self-service checkout will be an issue for purchasing alcohol. There will employees on hand to check your ID. At Safeways they sometime’s don’t check my ID and I look like I’m 20…if it’s really dark out.
@Jaybee – It’s currently allowed to sell alcohol via the self-serve checkout in California. The new law is working to change that.
Sarah B.
Actually the Albertson’s closed in 2006, Roger, but your point is well-taken.
@Paul B – Thanks for the correction!
Sarah B.
Just tell me whent hey do open because they got an amazing Malbec from Argintina I have been missing since I moved from So-Cal last june and at 1.99 a bottle Move over Two buck Chuck!!!! This stuff takes the cake! Want to know the name? Ricoletta… An Fresh and Easy Exclusive down south… Cant wait to get my hand on a case up here. Mmmmm.
I’m surprised San Francisco hasn’t already passed a law against buying alcohol at self checkouts. We always get the bans like plastic bags, ect. first.
The Fresh & Easy Buzz blog has lots of detail on the bill. They’ve been writing about the legislation since 2008. I read the blog post on May 4 http://freshneasybuzz.blogspot.com/2011/05/son-of-tescos-fresh-easy-law-new.html and since then AB 183 and how it could affect Fresh & Easy has been all over the press.
I like the option of having a clerk check my groceries out unless the prices are so much lower its’ worth doing it myself all the time. Fresh & Easy’s prices are about the same overall as Safeway’s in the stores I’ve been in Pacifica, San Jose and Walnut Creek. You have to ask a clerk at Fresh & Easy if you want help. Safeway and Lucky have a few stores with self-service but its a couple lanes added to the regular service ones.
I don’t know if its really a big issue that minors are buying alcohol at the self-service checkouts. But I’m no expert. Is it an issue? I know you can’t buy smokes at self-service checkouts. Fresh & Easy doesn’t sell them either.
@Dan B – I can definitely see a difference between things like the plastic bag ban and the self checkout alcohol purchase. Banning plastic bags has a clear environmental benefit – you can argue over the specifics, but there benefit is clear.
I’m not even sure that a regular checkout is more or less likely to sell alcohol to minors. I’ve bought alcohol at Albertson’s many times, from the regular checkout and the self checkout. Here are the actions:
Regular checkout:
1. I walk up and hand the bottle to the clerk.
2. Clerk scans the bottle and either asks me for ID and/or immediately asks for payment.
3. I leave
Self checkout:
1. I walk up and scan the bottle.
2. Lights flash and the machine beeps and will not let me continue to checkout.
3. Clerk walks up and either asks me for ID and/or immediately punches code into the screen.
4. I pay and then leave.
I’m really failing to see how the regular checkout would be any better at stopping sales to underage folks, but I’d be willing to bet that any study would actually show that the self checkout would come out ahead, simply because it’s harder for the clerk to simply pass you through quickly without a manager or other employee noticing (something I have seen NUMEROUS times at Albertson’s with clerks that appear to be 21 or 22 selling alcohol to someone who appears to be 18 or 19). For something like age checks, the more automation, the better, IMO, because it takes away many of the points in which a human can simply fudge the information.
Some history; that location was originally a Safeway that was abandoned when they built the Ocean Beach store. It took decades to become the failed Albertson’s.
In my opinion, Ma is pushing the legislation in return for union support. I’m sure the other chains would love to replace human checkers with self check-out.
It works just fine for purchasing beer and wine in Washington where I’m from (which has MUCH more draconian liquor laws than here, forcing you to go to govt run liquor stores to get hard alcohol). You scan the bar code on the liquor and it forces you to stop the process and see someone at a kiosk between the two rows of self-checkout tables. You show her your ID and she unlocks the checkout and you can continue. This is a non-issue.