Bad news if you’re mooching off of someone else’s Costco membership: The retail giant is cracking down.
Bad news if you’re mooching off of someone else’s Costco membership: The retail giant is cracking down.
When you enter Costco, you need to show your membership card to an employee to shop. Costco membership cards are non-transferable, but the company allows members to give a second household card to one other person in their home. Anyone with a card can bring up to two guests to the club during each visit, the company stipulates.
But Costco has noticed that non-members have been sneaking in with membership cards that don’t belong to them — particularly since Costco expanded self-checkout.
Costco recently started asking for shoppers’ membership cards along with a photo ID at the self-checkout registers, the same policy as regular checkout lanes, to crack down. “We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in announcing the change.
And now, Costco is testing out a system that requires members to scan their membership cards at the store entrance — instead of just flashing the card to employees. Shoppers have spotted the new scanners at a store in Washington State and posted photos on Reddit.
A bit belated, but it occurred to me that maybe the card for a second family member doesn’t have a photo, or still has the main member’s photo. I always assumed that the second person would have to get their photo taken for the card but since I’ve never borrowed a card, and don’t have a second user, I wouldn’t know.
My Costco photo is 20 years old and looks nothing like me anymore, but when I asked for a new photo they said no. So obviously they aren't looking closely at pictures.
One of the last times I was in, I was asked for my photo ID and Costco membership card no less than 5 times by employees. I literally got asked while I was in an isle looking at items. I've never had this happen before and made me honestly a bit irritated having to constantly pull my ID out of my wallet. This policy needs to chill.
Instacart lets anyone order from Costco and Sam's without a membership... You just have to pay overinflated Instacart prices and be cool with the fact that you're exploiting someone's labor.
There are a few costcos in socal with outdoor food courts. I’m nearly certain there’s no membership required to use them. I may be wrong though, it’s been a while.
This just saves the time of having such people getting in and filling up a cart and being stopped at the register. I've never been able to mooch off someone else's membership at Costco. The membership cards have photos of the member on them and they would stop me at the register whenever my dad sent me with his and not let me actually make the purchase. And I haven't even been to Costco (outside of the food court at the one down the street since it's outside and I can get that sweet hotdog combo without needing a membership) for years.
What do you want them to create rotating carousels of underground parking? Their parking lots are already massive what more do you want.
I just always go to the farthest possible parking spot from the store cuz they are generally always open easy to get in and out of and bypass all the stupid closer to the store
If people are so annoyed by the parking situation, just plan your visits when it's not as busy. It's not that difficult, even if it might be inconvenient.
Agreed, people's complaints are that they're too lazy to walk. I also usually park on the furthest lane near the back. Makes it easier to quickly part and quickly leave. Same when I go to the mall or any other shop with a parking lot. Mostly everyone could use some extra steps in anyways.
From the article, as I didn't see this being mentioned in the OP summary...
Costco is testing out a system that requires members to scan their membership cards at the store entrance — instead of just flashing the card to employees.
So it seems like there's two different things going on, per the article, when you're entering the building, and when you're trying to use a self checkout machine.
When you enter the building I've never had anyone check if it's actually my card, they only do that at the checkout. You just need to flash the card so they can tell you have one on your way in. They check the photo and address at the checkout though. I guess people were getting by that with the self checkouts.
I mean the carts are specifically designed for what they sell. Sam's and BJs are the same way. A smaller cart would be filled with just a couple items.
But Costco has noticed that non-members have been sneaking in with membership cards that don’t belong to them — particularly since Costco expanded self-checkout.
In other words, punishing customers for a self-inflicted issue.
How can it possibly speed up things at entry? They're going to be checking IDs like a bouncer at a club. I can imagine it speeding up checkout only if they stop requiring card scanning at that time too, and/or massive amounts of people are doing this today.
How does this mean that people won't have to scan their cards and prove themselves at checkout, when they allow anyone inside for the pharmacy, optical center, and to purchase alcohol?
There's a lady at the door of the Hacks Cross store in Memphis that is absolutely relentless about seeing and reading the values on membership cards as people enter the store. I feel sure that she used to be a living legend at the highway patrol before she retired and took this job.
They started this here months ago. My wife kept her maiden name when we got married. I'm sure you can figure out why our 2 hour customer service call ended in cancellation. FUCK Costco
Meh, I cancelled for similar reasons. They have tilted over to being way too aggressive about the card shit and it's gotten annoying. Plus, I don't think a lot of the deals are actually very good these days.
My local started this months ago. At self checkout they ask to see the photo on the back of your membership card to verify you're the same person. No secondary ID, and not sure what the point of that would be anyway. Counterfeit member cards?
I wonder if that brings changes to the membership tiers. I pay more for Executive membership to get 2% cashback, but if they will not scan my membership on the checkout how would they know how much I've spent?
Honestly, I've been considering just cancelling my Costco membership. Sam's Club let's you scan as you shop, check out on your phone, and walk out. If Costco let you do that, it would help cut down on this greatly.
Only let two phones be registered at a time and that's your ID. Or have different tiers for solo, duo, or family with different price tiers. If you get a new phone, you have to invalidate your old registration. Have TOTP or one-time QR codes generated in the app for when you check out in line or at the gas station. Let the old people still have cards, but you check their ID every time. If someone forgets their card, let them look it up by phone number and present an ID to prove they are that member. Could even give $10 off a membership for going digital or an extra 60 days of membership if you go all-digital to incentivize it. When someone goes digital, flag their card barcode as no longer active in the system if someone tries to use it.
If you go digital, you get to scan n go and walk right out. Someone scans a QR code of your receipt as you leave like they do at Sam's Club. Sam's Club even let's you scan a gas pump with your phone and it will already program in a credit card of your choice, tie that pump to your membership, and give you a digital receipt. Totally paperless and basically zero contact.
Yawn. Costco > Sam's club (ew, Walmart) for treating employees, plus Kirkland brand is the best store-name brand. Btw you can have a digital card on Costco app. I'm not even sure what your reason was for canceling, and for some reason I read your whole comment twice
The one place where Sam’s beats Costco is its scan and go app. You literally scan the barcodes of the items you want to purchase as you shop, check out in the app and walk out the door. Never have to speak to anyone or wait in the checkout line.
While I agree that I wouldn’t move to Sam’s on ethical grounds I don’t like Costco’s approach on this.
We pay for our membership. Adding hassle or making it less convenient as paying members just pushes me towards cancelling and using someone else’s membership instead.
I’m in the minority for sure though because we only use Costco for a handful of things on a pretty regular cadence (sparkling water, pet food, paper products etc.). We probably just slightly save more than the membership cost in a year.
I fully support Costco protecting their business model but at the end of the day it’s a subscription service and adding barriers to access will push us away.
I haven't cancelled yet. I said I was considering it.
I agree Costco selection and products are better, as well as their employee treatment. However, I have both at the moment, Sam's Club is a quarter mile from me while Costco is a 18 minute drive one way, and I can easily get in and out of Sam's Club with the Scan and Go app. That's why I'm considering whether renewing is worth it.
A app to scan like that would be amazing. Would go a long way to shortening those massive lines that make getting into and out of aisles complicated when it's busy.
So what happens if two friends go to Costco but only one has a membership card? Will they deny access? or, in an even better scenario, if you accompany an elderly.
I used to borrow a friends card and shop at Costco time to time.
Edit: That was in Canada
"And now, Costco is testing out a system that requires members to scan their membership cards at the store entrance — instead of just flashing the card to employees."
"The scanners also mean employees don’t need to ask customers for their membership cards at cash registers and self-checkout."
Look man - don't assume I can read. I'm like every other red blooded American that looks at a title and makes glaring assumptions and gives opinions that no one asked for. Okay?
This bullshit started with self checkouts. We need to widely reject self checkout, they cost people their jobs and just create more corporate bullshit. If these corporations want to avoid shop lifting and other issues, hire staff and get rid of self checkouts. I refuse to use them and shake my head at the employees when they direct me to an open self checkout.
My closest Costco doesn't really have self check, since they always have someone there doing the scanning for you. Effectively the self check is a weird looking Express Lane that they only sometimes enforce the item limit on.
I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted. I would love for my Costco card to be in my Apple Wallet and I would doubly love if they accepted my digital ID as I am in one of the 50 states that legally requires its acceptance.
It sounds like they're referring more to the bit about the member being able to bring up to two guests maximum into the store. So like if I had a membership and tried to bring my partner, my brother, and my 3 kids to the store with me because I'm disabled and need help shopping at a place like Costco but I'm the only one that drives. Is that me trying to bring 2 guests into the store, or 5? I might have misread but the article really didn't make it clear what constitutes a guest. I know even if it is 5 that my partner could be the secondary cardholder and it sounds like have 2 guests too but like there are families with 5 kids. What about just the two parents and the 5 kids?
Logically you'd think kids wouldn't count, but the article kinda makes it sound like anyone whose name isn't on the membership card is a guest. I think that's where the confusion comes from.
Well that sucks. A lot. We only have a Sam's Club here, but my family buys very little in the sizes that they offer things. There's one exception which is a much bigger expense otherwise, so we borrow my wife's co-worker's card every other month, buy a few boxes, then do it again. So we are there like four times a year and maybe spend $400 total. With a membership, it would be another $50 on top of that. For going four times a year. I'm sure they'll follow Costco's lead.
Even if you just buy gas, condoms, and medicine at Costco, you'd break even quickly. Depending on your location, even just one gas stop at Costco gas saved us $60, the price of a membership.
Medicine that costs north of $130 at CVS costs $47 at Costco. Some of the stuff you can get at Costco, like berries, are half the cost as normal grocers, and usually much higher quality goo. Some, you even get an entire carton of milk free vs buying the same ultra pasturized milk at other stores. We go there and split up a Costco run by our families :)
Hell, even in college, Costco saved us students so much money. We were so hungry, haha.
Costco treats its employees very well and they should be lauded for that, but frankly, I think the whole idea of paying a corporation for the privilege of shopping in their store is bullshit and should not be encouraged.
Yeah, they don't care. They want everyone buying to have a membership, as it's been for decades. This isn't some new crazy way they're screwing people. It's making sure the rules their members agreed to are followed.
Their entire model is based on assuming everyone is probably a thief, and I've just had it. That receipt checking of everyone as they leave is bad enough, and my last (literally last, i decided not to go back, wasn't going to renew and just now realized it would have expired in December) trip there, the woman held everyone up by meticulously counting and comparing every single item in everyone's cart. took 15 minutes to leave with goods i had paid for, finally just said fuck it and left while they screamed at me like fucking morons. "Touch me and see what happens". Aside from that, I don't want my movements documented and recorded by a card reader, for example, this whole incident, no I don't want people actively trying to fuck with me know who I was.
Because you can't give your card, which has your picture on it, to anyone you want? That really doesn't make sense. How many people do you think your membership, that you pay for, should cover? I doubt you actually had one bc this will literally only affect people who don't have memberships.
Our local Sam’s is disgusting. I was considering joining a while back during a $10 membership sale.
Everything was a mess, the employees all looked like they wanted to kill themselves, and the was a literal pile of human shit in the middle of the bathroom floor - not even in a stall or near a toilet - just a big ol dookie right in the middle of the bathroom.
I mean I have both Costco and Sam’s memberships both have pluses and minuses
The clothes at Costco are amazing at times
Sam’s has better paper products imo (TP, Kleenex)
Costco has a better food court
Costco parking designs are maddening, everyone I’ve been to have this diagonal entrance that is awful.
I think the Costco frozen section is a bit better than Sam’s.
Cat litter is way way cheaper st Costco
I’ve gotten $500 airfare gift cards for $429. Which is like getting free $ when you need to fly anyways.
Sam’s bulk candy isle is superior.
I think the Costco pharmacy has better pricing but no drive thru and it can be extremely slow.
I keep both memberships but I recently moved away from my Sam’s so it kinda out of the way, but with the plus membership I can usually get staple items delivered for free, something Costco doesn’t really do.
If you tell them you're thinking about becoming a member & want to check it out, they will let you walk around. They'll just tell you you can't check out without a card. So yes, free trial.