For people who scream about wanting affordability, Democrats have yet to deliver on any of it. They have made education, housing, and healthcare all skyrocket in costs thanks to government intervention under the guise of "lowering costs."
And now New York Democrats are about to make the cost of groceries go up by at least 10 percent with their latest scheme. This one involves mandating grocery stores give self-checkout customers a 10 percent discount.
Why? Because they argue that customers are doing work by scanning and bagging their own groceries, and are therefore entitled to compensation.
🚨 New York Democrats introduce bill requiring 10% discounts on all items at self-checkout. pic.twitter.com/VsPn8Sp9L9
— Democrats Deliver (@DemzDeliver) July 31, 2026
A 10% discount could be up for grabs — if you’re willing to work for it.
New York lawmaker, Nikki Lucas, proposed a 10% discount for shoppers who use the self-checkout lane. The bill, which was introduced in May, would only require retail establishments that also sell food to provide the discount.
This means supermarkets or retailers like Target and Walmart. Lucas argued that the money saved should go directly to the shopper and not the company, as customers are now doing the work.
“Retail businesses increasingly rely on self-checkout systems to reduce staffing and operational costs by shifting responsibilities traditionally performed by employees onto consumers,” Lucas wrote in the bill.
“Since customers are effectively completing portions of the checkout labor themselves without compensation, providing a mandatory discount helps ensure fairness, acknowledges consumer participation in store operations, and allows the public to share in the financial savings created by self-service technology,” the lawmaker added.
For people so concerned about making sure shoppers are "compensated" for bagging their own groceries, the Democrats still want to steal our income by constantly raising taxes.
Stores will not do this without raising prices on everything. That means shoppers who don't use the self-checkouts will, at a minimum, pay 10 percent more for their goods. Those who use the self-checkouts will, at best, break even.
I can't help but wonder if this isn't a backdoor way to end self-checkouts. Democrats, angry that businesses circumvent their job-killing minimum-wage hikes by shifting to automation, might be trying to discourage stores from using self-checkouts and returning to actual cashiers. In California, Democrats tried banning self-checkouts outright after Newsom's $20/hr minimum wage cost the state jobs and businesses.
Either way, the results will be the same: prices will invariably go up. That's what happens when you mandate minimum wages that do not reflect the market value of entry-level jobs, and instead insist the burger flipper at the nearest fast food joint needs a "living wage." It also exposes how little Democrats think of their constituents, that they believe working at McDonald's or bagging groceries at the local Walmart is the best they can ever do. The soft bigotry of low expectations is not confined to public schools.