Longmont council draft proposes 10% fee on unattended self-checkout sales
The discussion draft would charge 10% on unattended self-checkout transactions, or 5% for certain grocery retailers with qualifying labor agreements, and direct revenue to worker-support programs.
A Longmont City Council discussion draft proposes a fee on transactions processed through unattended self-checkout lanes, but it is not adopted policy.
Sponsored by Council Member Sean McCoy, the proposal would charge 10% of each transaction’s value. It would set a 5% rate for grocery retailers with a current collective-bargaining agreement covering checkout and front-end staff, documented annually with the city.
The Sept. 8 pre-session agenda listed the Automated Checkout Workforce Impact Fee as a discussion topic for the 6 p.m. pre-session, not as a formal action item. Longmont’s meeting information says pre-sessions are informal and cannot produce council action or direction.
The council packet recommends exempting smaller businesses, with a proposed starting point of fewer than 10 employees. Staffed lanes and hybrid lanes with an attendant actively assisting would not be covered.
The draft would direct revenue to a proposed Workforce Safety Net Fund for worker retraining, transitional income support, small-business workforce grants and partial reimbursement of city police costs associated with self-checkout-related theft responses. The packet says the city would need Longmont Police Department data before making public claims about local self-checkout theft.
The packet does not resolve the fee’s structure, including whether it would be a customer surcharge, retailer excise fee or per-terminal license fee. It also leaves the labor-agreement definition and small-business threshold unsettled and says the City Attorney’s Office would need to help develop formal ordinance language.