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.
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Makes sense, Costco makes its money from the memberships, not selling you stuff at wholesale prices after you’ve got one
Does it? What I get in rewards from shopping and refueling there more than makes up for my membership.
The money you’re saving doesn’t necessarily have to have any relation to the profit they make.
Impressive. I wouldn’t have guessed.
My costco card has my photo on it. Is that not a thing everywhere?
It is where I am as well, plus if you download the app you can bring up your ID card their as well, and it has the same photo on that as well.
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.
When we got my wife a card, they took her photo for her own card.
My partner and I are on an account together. We are not married, different last names. We both have cards with our names and photos.
Nope, during COVID they stopped taking or checking photos. They’ve had to spend the last few months getting everyone to get a new card now.
Oh you are right, that’s a very good point, I never thought about them skipping the photos because of masks.
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.
Now if they’d just come up with a new system for parking in the parking lot…
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.
Never had an issue with parking. Sure you might need to walk a bit but there’s always parking.
Whenever I go to Costco it’s a crapshoot if I actually go depending on the parking situation
About time. Doors are such an overrated method of entry.
edit: nevermind, read the article
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.
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
When I buy huge , heavy items , it’s real nice to not try to find the barcodes on 40lb packs of cat litter and cases of water.
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.
This is an odd take to me. You acknowledge that you pay for the membership and yet you’re against them enforcing the very benefits that you, as a member, are paying for and then your “solution” to that is to cancel your membership and do the same thing that they’re attempting to curb *specifically for their members *.
This is, to me, akin to someone paying for a gym membership and then cancelling said membership when the gym enforces not letting people in who haven’t paid to use the facilities. Aren’t you paying specifically for the gym staff to enforce who is allowed to come in and use the facilities?
I’m not against them enforcing it, just that their enforcement makes my experience worse. I’m not negatively impacted by this problem they’re trying to fix until their fixes make my experience worse.
I also think it’s naive to believe there’s no financial motivation and they’re only doing it because it’s unfair to their paying members.
Your gym analogy is also a false equivalence. The Costco membership gets you their product guarantee/return policy and the opportunity to purchase things at a cheaper price than elsewhere. Joe Schmo letting his neighbor use his membership doesn’t hurt me in any way, it only hurts Costco.
What I’m saying is actually similar to what has happened, and is happening, in media regarding DRM and various attempts to secure content.
You’re only saying that because they’re insulating you from the effect of this happening. If Costco had to raise rates because people were sharing memberships and members didn’t want that enforced, you’d complain about that too. Again, it’s odd to me that you’re complaining about them protecting the very benefits that you’re paying for which others are not. Unless you have some magic way to prevent non-members from using benefits that doesn’t affect members, your demands are unreasonable.
The gym analogy isn’t a false equivalence. If Joe Schmo lets his neighbor use your membership, it does affect you and it does so in the same way as it does at the gym - more traffic, less access to product, more upkeep, etc. and none of which they’re paying for but you are. I don’t understand why you’re ignoring the ways this affects you simply because this also affects you.
DRM is a a false equivalence. This is not immaterial goods like Intellectual Property. This is physical goods at physical stores of resources that are physically limited. It’s not the same thing in any way.
You’re only saying that because they’re insulating you from the effect of this happening. If Costco had to raise rates because people were sharing memberships and members didn’t want that enforced, you’d complain about that too.
I would not. If the new rates meant I’d pay more for a membership than I’d save over the course of a year I’d just not renew.
Again, it’s odd to me that you’re complaining about them protecting the very benefits that you’re paying for which others are not.
They are not protecting my benefits, they are protecting their revenue stream. I’m not sure why you and so many others don’t understand that companies don’t exist to provide something** for you**. They exist to extract a profit from you.
The gym analogy isn’t a false equivalence.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this and probably the whole situation in general because you’ve just re-stated the same points as in your first reply to me. You may not like my reasoning but it’s not wrong. The only reason I have a Costco membership is because it is currently cheaper for me to get a few items there than it is to get them elsewhere, but just barely. When it’s no longer financially beneficial to me to have a membership, or if they create a shopping experience so unpleasant that it outweighs the nominal savings we get from shopping there we will end our membership.
If that time ever comes and if the family members who have memberships now still do, then I’ll just have them buy for me or I’ll go as a “guest”. The only difference is the inconvenience of not being able to go whenever it’s convenient for me or waiting until we absolutely need something, because I’d have to go on someone else’s schedule.
Just because you can’t understand a logical cost/benefit rationale doesn’t make it wrong. I’m not under the same illusion as you seem to be that Costco, or any business or corporation, has my best interests at heart. This is ultimately about their revenue stream; you can tell yourself otherwise but you’re a fool if you think that’s not a driving factor.
Just because you can’t understand a logical cost/benefit rationale doesn’t make it wrong.
I understand it fine. I’m pointing out the flaw in it based on the fact that you’re complaining about paying for something that you are ok with others abusing for free. I never said that Costco wasn’t doing it for their own benefit. Happy members benefit them. People who aren’t members do not benefit them or members.
The entire point of contention is why any member would be ok with non-members using services you pay for without paying.
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.
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.
She’s playing Papers Please irl
Glory to Arstotzka.
They’ve been doing this here in southern AZ since I became a member like 5 years ago lol
Mine has always done this? You have to show your card to enter… And they do it at check out too
…along with photo ID…
Yes - at checkout at the self service - they make us show your id and your card
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Non-members need to go though. Pay your dues or go to another store.
My Costco card has a grainy photo on the back, too.
Same
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No you’re not. It’s private property and you can only enter if the owner says you can.
Except they have to allow you in to get to the pharmacy which has to be open to the public.
in some states, yes. Other than that, no. And not all Costcos (Small Business Cetners for instance) have pharmacies.
Guess what kind of state I’m in.
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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?
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.
Just tell them to fuck off.
Fuck off, then.
So a family can’t bring their multiple kids and the grandparents to Costco? WTF?
Read the article, silly. This isn’t about family members, it’s about non-members flashing cards that don’t belong to them. x3
I wonder if they will take Apple ID. I haven’t carried a drivers license since my state started using them a while back.
I hate going to costco so many people and the suv carts.
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.
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
In a decade you’re the first person I’ve ever met who had a problem with 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.
