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.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    111 months ago

    What if I wanted to buy something from Costco without the discount?

    • Zoolander
      link
      English
      -111 months ago

      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.

      • Flying Squid
        link
        011 months ago

        What if they didn’t charge you money for the discount? Do you really think they would go out of business?

        • Zoolander
          link
          English
          -111 months ago

          I don’t know but that’s not relevant. Since membership fees are their primary and largest source of revenue, they might.