With all due respect, I want State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas to get out of my self-checkout line.

The Los Angeles Democrat wants to regulate self-checkouts in grocery stores and retailers in the Walmart-Target vein but not big box stores like Costco and Home Depot.

She wants to limit self-checkouts to a maximum of 15 items and  have one employee per shift whose designated duties is to monitor the self-checkout lanes.

One of Smallwood-Cuevas’ colleagues in speaking in favor of Senate Bill 442, a San Jose Democrat Assemblymember by the name of Ash Kalra, believes self-checkout is not a good thing for customers.

She’s quoted by Calmatters as saying, “You must not be going to the stores if you think there is an improved shopping experience from these self-checkouts.”

Clearly, she’s never shopped at my neighborhood grocer which is the Manteca Food-4-Less on Spreckels Avenue.

The self-checkout lines gets me in and out of the store quicker.

At the same time, Food-4-Less does not create a deliberate full-service checkout  tourniquet as Walmart has been known to do, especially at their Tracy store.

They will have two regular checkouts open at max, which creates even longer lines at the two self-checkout areas.

That clearly isn’t for a better customer experience.

Forcing retailers to cut off self-checkout use to those with 15 items or less, shows that legislators apparently don’t grocery shop often or they are buying for more than one person.

The Food-4-Less limit of 25 is just right.

Four out of every five trips to the store, I can use the shelf checkout and be out the door before any of the full-service lines have inched forward.

It has almost nothing to do with the efficiency of the Manteca Food-4-Less cashiers that I can vouch for, but rather the volume of items most shoppers buy.

Cut the item number down to 15 or less, and the Legislature would dilute my shopping experience by forcing me to spend 60 percent more of my trips to Food-4-Less in a slow moving cashier line.

And let’s be brutally honest.

Another reason is the self-checkout only takes ATM, credit cards and cash.

They do not take SNAP cards.

Do not misunderstand. I have no quarrel with people that need to use the SNAP program.

But given how routinely the SNAP card use creates issues whether it is as WinCo, Food-4-Less, Walmart, or wherever, the State of California’s technology interface has more than a few flaws.

Perhaps if the Legislature is worried about improved shopping experience for everyone, including SNAP recipients, they might make the point of transaction less problematic.

As for requiring store personnel to monitor self-checkout, Smallwood-Cuevas must grocery shop on Mars when she does so in person.

I’ve never seen a grocery store, of any large volume retailer such as Target or Walmart, not have personnel monitoring self-checkouts.

Lawmakers pushing such legislation for labor groups, feign concern for employee safety from theft.

At the same time, they point to data that contends store losses are 16 times higher in self-checkout lines.

The Assembly member representing the high tech cradle better known as the Silicon Valley must not shop at grocery stores with the latest technology.

The advent of weighted tables that won’t let you continue scanning until the item you just scanned is placed on it, has reduced the number of items not scanned that happens inadvertently or otherwise.

Newer scanners also nag you non-stop except, of course to remind you to pick up the bag of ice you entered on the screen selection pad and paid for that you have a good chance of forgetting to grab on your way out of the store.

Up-to-date technology has drastically reduced losses.

As for outright theft, it is still done the old fashion way.

The culprits simply walk out with items in hand or push carts out loaded with items without paying. They don’t stand in line, self-checkout or not.

If anyone in the California Legislature really gives a rat’s behind about reducing store thefts, they wouldn’t be closing down prisons on a wholesale basis.

Of course, no one should advocate hard time for stealing items under $200. It is clear, however,  the consequences for such acts are not sufficient enough in a state that takes pride in closing down prisons without a corresponding rise in rehabilitation.

Perhaps what needs to be fixed is how the state allows law enforcement and the criminal justice system to operate and not mandating the number of employees grocery stores et al have watching over self-checkout lines.

A similar bill that failed last year required one employee for every two self-checkouts.

This time around it’s a one worker minimum.

It’s disingenuous, at best, given stores with clusters of self-checkouts already assign workers to the task.

That said, it’s deceptive at worse.

The reason is simple. It opens the door to accepting the state has any business at all dictating what a grocery store should do in terms of staffing self-checkouts.

Stores are already taking steps to reduce self-checkout losses.

And if they didn’t have an employee assigned to self-checkouts to assist customers, letting conditions like that linger either forces them into  regular cashier lines or convinces them not to return.

There is also another danger of the foray of state regulatory policing into self-checkout lines.

It’s a Trojan horse that can be used to justify such rules be placed on all self-checkouts in order to protect, or create, union jobs.

Costco did not need the wisdom of Smallwood-Cuevas or Kalra to improve the shopping experience at their store

They figured it on their own to the point they are, at least in my estimation, the platinum standard when it comes to self-checkout.

The Manteca store has six self-checkout lines typically with two employees monitoring them and assisting customers

There is no item limit.

The clerks, depending on the situation as in not being swamped, will even step up and scan items to help speed things up.

And the funny thing, at least regarding those that are prodding Smallwood-Cuevas to regulate how grocery stores, the Target-Walmart genre, and big box sides operate, Costco hasn’t cut jobs while effectively and safely preventing store losses.

The bottom line for the lawmakers is not creating optimum shopping experience for customers, keeping employees safe from aggressive shoplifters, or even helping stores reduces losses. It’s about propping up jobs.

And in order to do that, they need to erode the freedom of California shoppers to choose between self- checkout and a cashier line.

That is underscored by the lack of attention that reporting has given on Senate Bill 442’s provision that dictates a maximum self-checkout item limit of 15 in stores like Food-4-Less.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com