The days of using self-checkout to purchase wine and beer at retailers across the state could be coming to an end.

The Oklahoma Senate Business and Commerce Committee passed Senate Bill 1866 on Monday. Self-checkout of wine, beer and spirit-related beverages would be outlawed in the state in the hopes of stopping the theft of those items by those not yet of legal age to drink.

“Young people are starting to buy beer and wine without buying it,” said State Senator Bill Coleman (R-Ponca City). “What they’re doing is they’re going through the self-checkout line, and they scan a greeting card or some other small item with beer on top of it.”

Coleman said across the nation there are now documented instances of people under the age of 21, including high school aged teens, finding ways to fool any video monitoring of a self-checkout stand or even a self-checkout attendant into thinking they’re of age and paying for alcohol.

“The people who are underaged are not buying it, but they are using something else to scan it and then going out and ruining their bodies with it,” he said.

Coleman said the bill adds a mandatory point of human contact in the sale of alcohol where more accountability can be applied in what has mainly been a trust system.

Two Republican State Senators voted no on SB 1866 saying it puts an unnecessary burden on small businesses.

“Nothing in this legislation prevents what has been happening for decades, and that is coming up to someone in the parking lot, go through with the item, and then just hand it off,” said State Senator Shane Jett (R-Shawnee).

Jett said requiring a business to have an employee man a register when that employee could be better used in other parts of the business seemed like government overreach into the operations of a small business.

“If I’m allowing something that is illegal, there are already laws in place for me allowing that,” said State Senator Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin).

Deevers said the scheme Coleman cited an an example of eliminating self-checkout for wine and beer was already classified under the law as theft, and like Jett, said the state was burdening businesses with a new duty some may not be able to easily perform.

Coleman said the systems retailers are using are easily being fooled and many of the checks some stores have in place are not required by law but simply procedures stores have put in places that can be easily overridden. He said simply calling someone up to do a traditional means of checkout is not a burden but part of doing business.

“Requiring an ID or popping up an ID is all voluntary right now,” Coleman said. “This would completely eliminate the self-checkout of beer and wine.”

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