Workers at the Vons on East Broadway in downtown Long Beach were stunned this week to find the self-checkout lanes to be covered in plastic wrap.
According to workers at the store on Monday, the company plans to take out the lanes altogether.
It’s unclear when the lanes will be removed, what will be placed there instead and whether the store plans to increase staffing among regular lanes to offset the change.
Representatives with Vons did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the local grocers union, United Food and Commercial Workers 324, confirmed the shift but said they were still looking into it and did not share additional information.
One worker said Monday that staffing is a regular problem at the store, with three fewer workers at the deli counter alone.
Staffing levels, they said, have especially declined in the past year, with several workers routinely clocking overtime shifts.
This comes roughly two months after the store closed down its self-checkout counters, in response to a city ordinance that requires more staff to monitor the lanes as a means to thwart shoplifting.
The ordinance, approved earlier this fall, went into effect in September.
Three of the four Vons locations — near the Traffic Circle, downtown and on Spring Street in East Long Beach — shut down their self-checkout stations that month. Their location in Belmont Shore has kept its lanes open, as have the city’s Ralphs locations. Some Albertsons also closed their stations.
Workers at the Vons store on Ximeno Avenue said they’ve gotten no word on when the lanes might reopen.
The law allowed businesses — roughly 19 affected citywide — 30 days to implement the new rules, which critics of the law previously warned was not enough time. But those with the grocers union say the matter cannot wait, citing anecdotes of violence and fear from workers who feel overwhelmed and unsafe in their shifts.
The state grocers association and local business groups previously said they expected self-checkout lanes to reopen after stores figured out how to implement the new rules. It’s unclear if that’s now changed.