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.
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.
I could understand how this would appeal to someone with extreme social anxiety or someone really pressed for time, but in reality I don’t care for this at all. I’ll wait in line for 2-5 minutes or scan it myself at self checkout if I’m really pressed for time for some reason