Baptiste

I.

BACKGROUND

A. Facts Because this case comes to us at the pleading stage, we take as true the following facts alleged in Baptiste’s operative pleading, the first amended class action complaint. (See, e.g., Southern California Gas Leak Cases (2019) 7 Cal.5th 391, 395.) Ralphs operates retail grocery stores in California. To pay for their groceries, customers may proceed through either a checkout stand staffed by a cashier employed by Ralphs or a self-checkout stand operated by the customer. Baptiste shops at Ralphs’ stores in San Diego County and has often used self-checkout stands. In doing so, she performed many of the same tasks as those performed by Ralphs’ paid cashiers, but she received no compensation. Ralphs invites, encourages, and requests customers to use self-checkout stands, and it schedules fewer hours for cashiers to induce

2 customers to use self-checkout stands so that they can avoid longer lines at staffed checkout stands. Such measures benefit Ralphs by reducing payroll costs, and harm society by increasing unemployment, exerting downward pressure on wages in the retail industry, and promoting sociological harms related to lack of employment. B. …