Self-Checkout Regulations Spread As NY’s A11501 Signals A New Approach

What NY’s Bill A11501 Would Require

The bill’s argument is rooted in a common consumer complaint that the labor once performed by the cashier now falls on the customer, without any compensation. Customers question why they are performing work the retailer has been traditionally expected to handle, without sharing directly in the savings. Self-checkout may reduce the friction of waiting for a cashier, but it replaces it with the work of scanning, bagging and processing payments. The New York bill taps into that sentiment by placing a financial value on that exchange.

The proposal broadly defines a “food retail establishment” as a supermarket, grocery store or other food retailer. It does not offer a minimum store size, sales volume or number of self-checkout kiosks. The grocery stores and supermarkets it explicitly targets operate on particularly thin margins. The Food Industry Association reports average net profit margins for food retailers at 2.1%, making a 10% discount impossible to absorb at current pricing.

Whether retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco, 7-Eleven, and others with mixed merchandise will qualify is unclear. The language of the bill also seems to apply to all goods purchased through a kiosk, rather than only food. That could have significant implications for mass retailers, convenience stores, and warehouse clubs that sell groceries alongside apparel, electronics, home goods and other general merchandise.

A11501 defines self-checkout as an automated process that allows a customer to scan, bag and pay for merchandise at a fixed in-store kiosk without human assistance. That wording could create questions about which emerging checkout formats would be covered. Mobile scan-and-go systems, app-based checkout and technologies such as Amazon’s Just Walk Out do not necessarily require customers to complete all three actions at a fixed kiosk. Even conventional self-checkout may involve assistance from an employee when an item lacks a barcode, a promotion fails to register or an age-restricted purchase requires an approval.

Introduced in late May, the bill had a very short window for consideration before New York’s legislative session ended. It was referred to a committee, but did not receive a committee or a floor vote. In order for the bill to become law, it would need to be reintroduced and pass both the Assembly and Senate before reaching the governor. The late introduction is a common practice as a way to test the waters or stake out political positions. That does not mean the bill is dead.

Although its future is uncertain, it signals both an increase in state involvement and growing consumer pushback on tradeoffs for convenience. While other self-checkout proposals focus on staffing, kiosk limits and loss prevention, A11501 targets the financial benefit retailers expect the technology to produce.

States And Cities Are Creating A Fragmented Regulatory Landscape

New York is just one of many states increasing regulation around consumer protections. Rhode Island was the first state in the U.S. to enact statewide self-checkout restrictions with its Restrictions on Self-Service Checkout Stations Act, which takes effect January 1, 2027. The act requires grocery stores to have at least one human-operated checkout station for every three self-service stations during peak hours. It also stipulates at least one must be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and self-checkout monitors must also be free from other duties.

Similar legislation has either been introduced, enacted or considered in additional states including California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington, and Ohio.

Even at the local city level, there has been development. The city of Long Beach California enacted Ordinance No. ORD-25-0010 which took effect September 21, 2025 mandates a 1:3 staff-to-kiosk ratio, sets a 15-item limit, and bans locked or ID-checked items at self-checkout. New York City is separately considering a very similar bill, Introduction 0729-2026. The measures vary in status and scope but generally focus on staffing ratios, kiosk limits, employee oversight, safety and loss prevention.

This increased legislation is raising concerns for retailers, leading some to rethink their national strategies. Bed Bath & Beyond Executive Chairman and CEO Marcus Lemonis has been vocal about challenges operating in California, citing their regulations. California has also led state-level retail regulation in areas such as textile Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations with its new SB 707.

The Jobs Argument Behind Self-Checkout Rules

These types of regionalized laws are not new. Just over the Hudson River, New Jersey has prohibited drivers from pumping their own gasoline since 1949. Although the prohibition started as a safety measure, subsequent defenses of the law have included protecting accessibility, independent gas stations and attendant jobs. The law has survived, but gas stations have a different margin equation entirely.

Employment concerns surrounding self-checkout are arriving amid a broader contraction in retail jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects cashiers to experience one of the largest occupational declines over the coming decade, with more than 300,000 positions expected to disappear. This reduces the appeal of retail careers while also threatening the talent pipeline throughout organizations.

Another challenge to the bill comes with the blanket 10% figure applied across all transactions. The required discount does not vary according to the number of items, the time required to complete the transaction or the level of assistance required. Scanning a single big-ticket item could total up to the same amount as many smaller items. The bill architecture therefore creates a disconnect by focusing on the price of the merchandise rather than the labor required for the transaction.

How Walmart, Target, Costco, Amazon And Others Are Rethinking Self-Checkout

These challenges are arriving at a time when retailers are already reassessing their checkout strategies amidst theft, operating complexity, customer frustration in addition to the increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape.

• Dollar General has had the most dramatic shift by eliminating or converting self-checkout in approximately 12,000 of its 20,000 stores, largely in response to shrink. A limited number of high-traffic low shrink stores continue to offer self-checkout options.
• Target, rather than removing the technology, has streamlined its strategy by adjusting policies mostly chain-wide to limit self-checkout purchases to 10-items or less. The retailer announced that this small change has improved customer satisfaction and improved efficiencies.
• Walmart has taken a selective approach by removing self-checkout kiosks from select stores, driven by employee and customer-led feedback as well as shopping behavior and the needs of individual locations.
• Amazon pursued the widest range of checkout technologies including Just Walk Out, Dash Cart and Amazon One which operates using palm payment. Although Amazon Fresh physical locations no longer exist, the retailer had removed its Just Walk Out technology from stores to replace it with computer-vision based cart technology. The Just Walk Out model still exists, however, across smaller format third-party retailers like Hudson News.
• Sam’s Club is moving in the opposite direction as the warehouse club plans to phase out traditional checkout in favor of its Scan & Go and Just Go technology, which allows customers to scan merchandise with its app and uses computer vision to verify purchases at the exit. This eliminates the concept of a fixed kiosk entirely.

Rather than marking the disappearance of self-checkout, these case studies highlight how a broadly applied one-size fits all model is unlikely to be effective.

Could The Self-Service Principle Extend Beyond Checkout?

The implications of bill A11501 have the potential to extend well beyond just checkout lanes and could alter the economics of self-service altogether. By linking consumer compensation to work shifted from employees, the bill raises a broader policy question, who should benefit from the productivity gains created by automation?

Similar questions could then emerge across other forms of self-service. Airline check-in kiosks, restaurant ordering systems, AI-powered customer service portals, self-service returns and even online banking all shift tasks from employees to consumers in exchange for lowering operating costs and greater convenience.

A11501 could make the retail industry the starting point for a broader debate over the relationship between operational strategies and consumer protections.