Costa Mesa Regulates Self-Checkout Staffing

As a reminder for employers with employees in the Costa Mesa City, on February 17, 2026, the City Council approved a self-service checkout staffing ordinance for certain grocery and drug retailers, and the City lists the ordinance.

The ordinance requires covered stores that offer self-checkout to keep at least one traditional staffed checkout lane open, dedicate employee supervision to self-checkout, limit certain transactions, and post required customer-facing signage.

This update is applicable to employers operating covered drug retail establishments and food retail establishments in Costa Mesa that offer self-service checkout, and the ordinance took effect on April 20, 2026.

What Employers Need to Do

• Determine whether each Costa Mesa location is covered, including whether it qualifies as a Drug Retail Establishment or a Food Retail Establishment meeting the ordinance’s square-footage and food-sales criteria.

• If self-checkout is offered, keep at least one non-self-service checkout station staffed by an employee whenever self-checkout is available and maintain dedicated supervision at a ratio of at least one employee for every three self-checkout stations.

• Adopt and implement a workforce policy prohibiting self-checkout purchases of age-restricted items requiring identification, including alcohol and tobacco, and of theft-protected items requiring employee intervention before purchase.

• Post all required signage, including item-limit signage and customer-facing notice containing a link or QR code to the City’s ordinance page and a physical and/or email address for reporting violations.

• Train managers on the ordinance’s 15-day notice-and-cure process, private right of action exposure, and anti-retaliation rule protecting employees who assert or support rights under the ordinance.

Overview

• Costa Mesa’s self-service checkout staffing ordinance applies to covered drug retail establishments and food retail establishments operating in the city.

• A covered Food Retail Establishment is a retail store that is either over 15,000 square feet and primarily sells household foodstuff for off-site consumption, or over 85,000 square feet with at least 10% of sales-floor area dedicated to non-taxable food merchandise.

• Whenever self-checkout is available, a covered store must keep at least one non-self-service checkout station staffed by an employee.

• Covered stores must assign dedicated employee coverage to self-checkout areas during all business hours, and at least one employee must supervise up to three self-checkout stations without other responsibilities that interfere with direct visual inspection and surveillance.

• Stores must post signage stating that self-checkout should be limited to purchases of about 15 items.

• Stores must prohibit self-checkout purchases of age-restricted items requiring identification, including alcohol and tobacco products, and of security-tagged, locked-up, or otherwise theft-protected items that require employee intervention before purchase.

• Covered stores also must post customer-accessible signage notifying the public about the ordinance, including a link or QR code to the City’s website and a physical and/or email address to which reports of violations may be delivered. Failure to maintain that address waives the store’s right to argue lack of proper notice in a civil action under the ordinance.

• Enforcement uses a notice-and-cure process: a customer or employee must first notify store management in person and in writing, the store then has 15 calendar days to cure, and only after the cure period expires may a civil action be filed in California Superior Court if the violation remains uncured.

• If a customer or employee prevails, available relief includes the greater of a civil penalty of up to $100 per employee per violation—with daily uncured increases of $100 per employee per day up to a maximum of $1,000 per employee per day—or actual damages, plus reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs for the prevailing party.

Why This Matters

Costa Mesa’s ordinance adds operational staffing, transaction-control, and notice requirements to self-checkout practices for covered grocery and drug retailers, which means affected employers cannot treat self-checkout as a largely unattended or lightly supervised retail function.

The ordinance also creates litigation exposure through a private right of action, escalating uncured penalties, and prevailing-party fee recovery, so even short-lived compliance failures may become expensive if stores do not cure promptly after notice.

Because the ordinance also includes anti-retaliation protections, covered employers should view compliance as both an operations issue and an employee-relations issue.

Key Risks for Employers

• Misclassifying a Costa Mesa location as outside the ordinance when it meets the covered drug-store or food-store criteria.

• Operating self-checkout without a staffed traditional lane or without the required dedicated supervision ratio of one employee for every three self-checkout stations.

• Allowing prohibited transactions at self-checkout, including age-restricted items or items requiring employee intervention to remove theft-deterrent protections.

• Failing to post required customer-facing signage or maintain a valid physical or email address for notice of alleged violations.

• Exposure to civil actions, escalating penalties, attorneys’ fees, and retaliation claims if the store does not cure timely or if employees are treated adversely for asserting rights under the ordinance.

Additional Information

The ordinance requires self-checkout stations to be placed where they can be observed and monitored by employees and local law enforcement, and the City states that implementation may take account of operational and logistical feasibility.

The City also states that the City Council will review the ordinance’s impacts and effectiveness in 2027, which suggests the measure may be revisited after implementation.

Source References

• Costa de Mesa Ordinance – Title 9, Chapter II, Article 7 – Relating To Grocery And Drug Store Staffing Standards For Self-Service Checkout Stations (February 17, 2026)
• Costa Mesa – Press Release

Resources

• City of Costa Mesa – Public Notice Signage Template

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