The candy gauntlet shrinks: 33 Richmond retailers to face healthy checkout rules

About 33 Richmond businesses will have to change what they sell at the checkout counter after the City Council voted Tuesday to align its healthy checkout ordinance with a Contra Costa County measure.

The Healthy Options at Point of Sale ordinance, first introduced in 2022, sets nutrition standards for food and beverages sold at checkout areas in retail stores.

According to real estate and grocery industry data, a 2,000-square-foot store is small by retail standards, roughly the size of a large convenience store or a neighborhood market. A typical Walgreens or CVS runs 10,000 to 15,000 square feet, and the average U.S. grocery store measures around 35,800 to 40,000 square feet,

"We're not telling retailers or store operators not to sell their products," Councilmember Jamelia Brown said. "We're just saying that hey, at the checkout counter, we don't want a bunch of nonsense at the checkout counter."

Matching the county's ordinance word for word is the price of getting Contra Costa County's Environmental Health Department to enforce it, which city staff said Richmond doesn't have the capacity to do on its own. County staff has said a mismatched ordinance would likely end the county's willingness to serve as the enforcing agency, and the county Board of Supervisors would still need to approve an interagency agreement before the arrangement takes effect.

Enforcement would be complaint-based, with county staff conducting an initial inspection and up to two re-inspections before referring a noncompliant business back to the city. The county said it would bill enforcement costs directly to noncompliant operators, with no anticipated cost to Richmond.

Snack displays near the checkout at the Richmond Target are the kind of setup the city's revised Healthy Options at Point of Sale ordinance opposes.

Councilmember Cesar Zepeda asked staff for the list of the newly affected retailers.

"The total number is about 33 businesses in Richmond," said Yahna Williamson, a city management analyst who presented the item, but said staff didn't have the actual list on hand and would share it once located.

Zepeda also confirmed the square-footage threshold applies to a store's total footprint, not just a grocery section, meaning a store like Target would qualify based on its overall size.

Grocers' association raises objection

Tim James, speaking on behalf of the California Grocers Association, asked the council to exempt full-service grocery stores from the ordinance, arguing that stores already dedicating tens of thousands of square feet to fresh produce, meat and dairy shouldn't face the same checkout restrictions as much smaller retailers with little healthy food on offer.

"It is an overreach no other retail type is forced to deal with," James said. "Please do not use the cut-and-paste policy, and instead ensure you do not necessarily impact full-service grocers or create an environment of overregulation."

James pointed to a full-service grocery store in Perris, California, that did not open, which he attributed partly to similar regulation, and noted no full-service grocers operate in unincorporated Contra Costa County, calling that a flawed basis for comparison.

In a written comment submitted to council, James called full-service grocers "the 'health food store' in every neighborhood they serve" and raised a technical objection not covered in his public comment: full-service grocers often run multiple point-of-sale stations throughout a store, including at delis, bakeries and meat counters, not just at the main checkout, which he said the ordinance doesn't account for. He asked the city to "provide instruction to staff to consider a full-service grocer exemption opportunity."

Council approved the size-threshold change without staff being able to produce the underlying list of businesses it would affect. Grandview reached out to city staff requesting that list and will update this story if it's received.

City staff will work with the county to finalize an interagency agreement and a final version of the ordinance, develop multilingual educational materials, and carry out a year of retailer education and outreach before enforcement begins.

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