New York City Council Members Tackle Self-Checkout Retail Theft By Threatening To Fine Business Owners

New York City (NYC) Democrats want to fight shoplifting by punishing grocery stores and their customers rather than the people stealing from them.

Councilwoman Amanda Farias introduced legislation Tuesday that would cap self-checkout transactions at 15 items and require supermarkets and pharmacies to assign at least one worker for every three self-checkout lanes, the New York Post (NYP) reported. Stores that fail to comply would face daily fines starting at $100.

“We’ve seen the consequences of removing workers from these spaces: increased retail theft, less oversight, fewer protections for both workers and customers, and generally decreased safety,” Farias said, according to NYP. Four fellow Democrats co-sponsored the bill: Manhattan’s Gale Brewer and Harvey Epstein, Queens’ Tiffany Cabán, and Shirley Aldebol of the Bronx. (RELATED: Mamdani Dips Hands In Cookie Jar With Every Trick To Make City Look Not Broke)

Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola rejected the proposal outright. “This is typical backwards leftist logic,” Ariola told the NYP. “Instead of actually trying to punish criminals, my colleagues are pushing to make life even harder for businesses and consumers.”

Jason Ferraira, a board member of the National Supermarket Association who runs three Foodtown locations in Queens, called the bill misguided. “I think this is a horrible idea,” Ferraira told the NYP. “You don’t prevent shoplifting by making me have a certain ratio of employees. People shoplift in a lot of different ways.”

NYC Council Dems’ bizarre plan to crack down on the supermarket self-checkout line https://t.co/BbBvRZTMfG pic.twitter.com/NEBXicu50y

— New York Post (@nypost) March 14, 2026

The proposal landed the same week the Council introduced a separate bill to raise the city’s hourly minimum wage from $17 to $30 by 2030, Gothamist reported. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, backed the wage increase during his campaign, and a spokesperson confirmed he remains committed to the push. Business leaders warn the combined regulatory burden could drive employers out of the city.

Retail theft in New York City surged 68% above pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and remains elevated despite a roughly 7% decline between 2023 and 2025, according to a Brennan Center for Justice analysis. The city continues to buck a national trend of falling shoplifting rates.

NYC’s approach follows a template set in California, where Long Beach and Costa Mesa adopted similar self-checkout staffing mandates in 2025 and 2026, the Orange County Register reported. Labor-aligned lawmakers in both cities framed those measures as job-protection efforts rather than anti-crime tools.