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.
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.
I wish more places had the Scan and Go option in the app like Sam’s Club. Not having to visit a register is so nice.