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Alcohol checkout legislation on hold

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A California Senate bill that would force supermarkets to route all alcohol sales through live cashiers, who could ensure that buyers are sober and of legal drinking age, failed to pass this year after the author pulled the proposed legislation.

It is a procedural move that will allow the bill, AB 1060, to be reintroduced at the start of the new legislative session in January without having to make its way past all the legislative committees again. Backers believe the bill by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) easily has enough votes to pass in the Senate. This delay gives them time to lobby for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s support.

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The bill breezed through the Assembly this year over the objections of some large grocery chains. It has support from organizations fighting alcoholism and teen drinking, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Marin Institute as well as labor-allied community groups such as the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

California already forbids cigarettes, spray paint and some over-the-counter medications to be sold in self-service checkouts to make it tougher for minors to obtain them. AB 1060 would add beer, wine and spirits to that list, De La Torre said.

If approved, the legislation would also have an outsize effect on Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores. That chain, which uses self-service checkout exclusively, would have to adjust its model or give up lucrative alcohol sales.

Self-service checkout systems are growing in popularity. Shoppers run the items across a scanner and place them in a bag on an electronic scale. The machine checks to see whether the weight of the product matches what was scanned to keep customers honest. Consumers like the convenience, and supermarkets save on labor.

-- Jerry Hirsch
twitter.com/latimesjerry

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