Costa Mesa recently became the second California city to regulate self-checkout lanes, joining Long Beach in passing rules that limit kiosk-to-employee ratios and cap customer item counts. While supporters argue the move protects workers, the ordinance carries some significant risks for the city's economy and business climate.

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• Business flight — Shoppers may simply cross city lines to avoid the restrictions, taking their sales tax dollars with them and quietly draining Costa Mesa's municipal revenue. 

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• Store pullback — Long Beach's experience offers an early warning: some retailers there chose to shut down self-checkout kiosks entirely rather than absorb new staffing costs — leaving all shoppers worse off.

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• Wrong message to business — Two dissenting council members cautioned that the ordinance signals hostility toward retailers at a time when cities should be competing to attract and retain them.

 

The city has built in a one-year review and an option to revisit the law if problems emerge — a rare acknowledgment from lawmakers that this experiment may not go as planned. For now, Costa Mesa is betting that worker protections outweigh the economic risks. Whether that bet pays off may depend entirely on what happens in Long Beach first.

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Remember, WE ARE COSTA MESA! Let's shape the future of our city together.