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Editorial: Costa Mesa puts union demands above consumers

January 28, 2026

Americans have been watching with bemusement the goings-on in New York City, where a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is promising democratic socialist policies including a plan to open city-run grocery stores. But the nuttiness isn’t confined to big, liberal cities. In Costa Mesa, the City Council just took a page from that playbook.

As the Register reported, the council approved 3-2 on January 20 the first reading of an ordinance that would require stores to have a staff member for every three self-checkout lanes. It also imposes a 15-item cap and bars the sale at these lanes of items purchased from a locked case. This nonsense is the handiwork of unions, which have tried to pass similar laws at the state level. Costa Mesa is believed to be the second city in the nation to pass such a law. News reports suggest it will affect nearly a dozen retailers, pharmacies and grocers.

The justification, as explained in the law’s text, is nonsensical: “It is in the public’s interest to require grocery and drug stores to adopt effective preventative measures that will address the impacts on public health and safety that retail theft creates within the context of self-service checkout operations where theft commonly occurs but remains largely unchecked and underreported.” The city claims the law with address “the hostile and unsafe working conditions for employees, and unsafe shopping environments for customers.”

It would be nice if supporters were forthright about their motives. There are no safety considerations involving self-service stations. Nearly all shoppers have been using them for years. They do not create hostile working conditions. Self-service lines may indeed be more prone to theft, but private stores and their insurers are perfectly capable of weighing the costs and benefits of using them. This is nothing more than a jobs-protection racket that will raise costs and reduce consumer convenience on behalf of a special-interest group.

This is not an appropriate use of local regulation. But fortunately for Costa Mesa, it’s too small of a city to become, like New York, a national laughingstock.

Orange County Register

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Editorial: Costa Mesa puts union demands above consumers

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