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.
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.
Meh, it depends on how much you really need to buy. We have a big household so we do genuinely save buying in bulk when we’d usually need to get at least a couple packages of whatever food to feed everyone.
Doing probably 75% of my shopping there with the 2% cash back has allowed my membership to pay for itself. And personally, knowing that they treat their employees fairly well is big draw, especially with how draining retail work can be.
So it’s definitely not for everyone, but if you do actually use all of the stuff you buy, it does have decent benefits.
Sure, but why should you have to pay for the privilege of shopping there in the first place?
Because it’s part of what allows them to keep costs down. If you’re only going to go once or twice a year, they’re losing money on you. They need a way to compensate for unprofitable shoppers, and a bit of sunk cost to keep the regulars coming back.
Still, I tallied up my last Costco trip with the equivalent of the same items at our regular grocery store and came up about $35 cheaper, that’s already a decent chunk towards my membership cost and doesn’t include cash back. In capitalism, that’s about as close to a win-win as you can get.
Because they offer something that other stores cannot. Why do you pay for any privilege that you pay for?
No, they offer the same things other stores offer in larger quantities so the per item cost is lower. You’re paying for that. Movie theaters offer something other businesses don’t. Would it be acceptable for them to require you to have a movie theater membership before being allowed to buy a ticket or popcorn?
…you just admitted that you’re paying for a benefit. What are you even arguing here? If other stores do not offer larger quantities where the per item cost is lower, then that’s the benefit you’re paying for.
Movie theatres are a bad counter too. You can’t get into the movie theatre to buy popcorn without a ticket in most theatres. The ticket is your admittance in the same way the membership is.
You pay for a membership for the benefit of buying a movie ticket. What’s the difference?
Some people do. AMC has a stubs rewards program that gives you discounts on tickets. Even if you don’t have that, though, you still have to buy a ticket to get into the theatre and buy popcorn and snacks. Without a ticket, you can’t get in.
Again- you have to buy a membership to buy a ticket in this scenario. Why do you keep avoiding that? Is it because you know that wouldn’t be okay in pretty much any other setting but Costco and Sam’s Club?
Amen to that. It feels like I’m subsidizing wages. If your business needs me to pay for the merchandise AND a pass for entry you can fuck right off.
Economics of scale mean bulk purchases are cheaper. They get them much cheaper than you do when you buy there (given it’ll usually be less per unit compared to other stores). This is akin to Amazon adding ads to their PAYING customer’s plans or Netflix backtracking on account sharing. Corpo BS of the highest degree.
Imagine if you had to buy a McDonalds membership at $50 a year in order to buy a Big Mac…
Keep going… imagine that every Big Mac you buy now is 25% cheaper. If you buy enough Big Macs, you might save money over the course of the year. At some point, the 25% cheaper thing is going to be far more than the $50.
I swear people have no math or finance skills anymore…
You’re still paying for the privilege of shopping there. I have no idea why you think that is how things should run.
I’m not paying for that. I’m paying for the benefits the membership provides.
It’s why you can use the pharmacy and buy certain items without a membership. Those aren’t benefited in the same way as the rest of the purchases you can make there.
Wrong, Costco cannot legally prevent you from using the pharmacy. All health services are available to the public by law. Alcohol too although that law is because they are issued a public license.
Can you provide an example of anything Costco makes available to the general public the same as their members when they don’t have to?
The closest I can think of is online shopping but that adds a 5% surcharge and I don’t even know if you still can do that.
Your membership is paying to be able to shop there, the advantage being the lower prices they achieve by purchasing wholesale and limiting markup, no more than 14% for regular and 15% for Kirkland I think.
Edit: I looked at your comment history. Don’t bother replying, I’m not interested in anything you have to say and I can go to a Costco if I want to be pitched on their membership.
I’m not sure what you’re arguing against. You’re just making my point for me that the membership is paying for benefits that normal non-members don’t get.
You’re still paying for the privilege of shopping there. I have no idea why you think that is how things should run.
I’m not. I’m paying for the benefits they provide.
What if I wanted to buy something from Costco without the discount?
Since you can’t buy items not in bulk, you can only buy things that don’t have that discount, as I already mentioned. The discount is the benefit you’re paying for, amongst others.
What if they didn’t charge you money for the discount? Do you really think they would go out of business?
When I go shopping I pay for the goods I’m buying. Not anything else.
Yes… at a higher price than you would otherwise. That’s why you’re not paying for a membership.
I don’t see why this is so hard for you to understand.
We shop differently, I’m not here trying to convince you that you’re wrong. I don’t need a 400 pack of bog roll for the 2 souls in my home… I guess get over yourself?