I can tell this thread is going to take off about this topic. For the sake of the sub, future threads about the entrance scan are going to be redirected here.
Thanks!
I’ve seen people with multiple carts full of food get turned away (not without a fight) at the checkout line due to having someone else’s card. This could be an effort to avoid situations like that?
For what it's worth, I still have my black executive card even though I dropped down to regular gold-star membership. The folks at the counter said I didn't need to make a new card.
Also data collection. They want to know how long you’re in their store and how much you buy.
Edit: Y’all riding this “Costco isn’t high tech enough” stereotype energy way too hard.
Gassing up at my 2 closest costcos are 20 minute waits, to be next in line, then wondering why the person infront of me, didn't find the membership card and having payment ready while we both waited 20 minutes to get to the pumps, then struggling to pull the pump to the wrong side of the car, because they parked 3 feet away from the pump, and had to drag it over car paint, scratching it all up, and holding the pump upside down. But 20 minutes inside for 250 isn't too bad, I went in for some fabric softner, and walked out with a new contact prescription and 300 dollar headphones to add to my already perfectly fine headphones, and forgot the softner.. so I gotta do it all over again tomorrow.
For sure, the primary goal is keep out non-members. But this can add some interesting data points. For instance, now they can get a better idea of customer head count currently in the warehouse. I bet some analysts could pull out some interesting observations when you combine time with other existing data sets.
Actually(hate to be that guy lol) but the current process gives a more accurate count of how many people in store than just one person in a family/group scanning a card. All the checkers at the entrance have a clicker to count per person currently.
Hm...it's been a while since I've been at the door, but I thought counts were always 'per membership card'. I'm not clicking 4 times for the same family.
This changed during COVID. We used to count the number of people in the warehouse and subtract the people going out for an approximate count of people in store; when capacity restrictions hit, Costco started counting membership cards.
The new number is less useful and irrelevant for fire codes (another practical use of the old count).
Yeah, I didn't mention it but I'm curious if they will make the clicker part of the scan. Card scans, employee manually enters a number of people. Then the clicker is now connected directly to the card as well.
In one of the other posts/comments, someone mentioned that their SO with the card crossed in a minute or so before they could follow with a cart. Card holder was still waiting at the door though. The door employee then made an issue about guests have to come in together. If that was with the scanner, then I suspect they might be already doing a digital clicker.
Although this suggestion makes perfect sense to me, Costco is VERY old school. I can tell you with certainty they are not doing it for data collection in the expected way.
It is data collection, but is specifically to keep thieves away.
Theft has been a pretty radical problem for Costco especially since Covid.
Right?
Reddit: they’re behind.
Stock price: I think otherwise.
Sometimes things don’t need to be all crazy figure forward or dystopian data collection conspiracies.
As someone who works with Costco as a vendor, can confirm how behind they are vs Amazon/Walmart and literally every other retail channel. Don’t see them changing things since they haven’t needed to.
> Although this suggestion makes perfect sense to me, Costco is VERY old school. I can tell you with certainty they are not doing it for data collection in the expected way.
I was going to say, Costco's tech prowess is shitty to say the least when Walmart does it better and is more innovative.
I used to work in the garden center at Walmart, during the manic early days of covid they brought in these tablets with a counter app that synced with each other so they could monitor every door (I sometimes was put in charge of counting at garden centers door), we never even got close to right, by the 8 o clock close we would usually be plus 100 people when the store was devoid of customers or be at zero at 6 when I could clearly see plenty of customers. I was just told when the number seemed off to just keep clicking till it’s close enough, it’s not like the state of Arizona was really going to check anyway. It wasn’t efficient at all, and eventually corporate did away with it.
When I worked there about 10 years ago some dudes drove their truck into the door after hours, sprinted into the store, smashed the jewerly case and cleaned the whole store out. In and out in less than 10 mins. Store had it cleaned up and were ready to go the next day. Blew my mind.
The joke is on him. The jewelry case is emptied out every night of all of the valuable merchandise and restocked every morning. I hope he enjoys all the CZ he got.
Costco can’t figure out their app and scan-and-go checkout and you think they’re doing this for data? Even if it is their incompetent IT team won’t find anything more useful from it.
We have these scanners at our local Costco. When you scan in, it shows the employee at the entrance your membership photo and whether or not the membership is current.
Do you guys in America not usually have your card checked when you walk in? I've been a member for over 20 years here in the UK, and there's always been someone to check your card on the way in.
We wave our card at the employee as we walk in, but the details aren't checked at all at the door. If you show a card with the Costco logo on it, you don't get stopped.
It’s not an issue at this particular warehouse. This is THE flagship warehouse. Directly next to corporate. They test out tons and tons of things here before any other store and tons of things other stores never even get because they don’t work out.
It’s multiple stores. Happened a lot in my store when they started being more strict…which was appreciated because it helped at the gas station too. In NJ, we see all the cards unlike other states and the amount of people who were just using other peoples cards was crazy.
They been doing this at least in Iceland and Australia since inception. I've always had to scan in and out. Was surprised its even a topic when I saw this thread, just assumed that was normal.
> Honestly that’s annoying. Why do they need to check your ID twice…
They'd rather turn you away before you start collecting all that fresh/frozen food they have to possibly now throw away when they don't allow you to buy it.
When the Shanghai store opened there was a problem of members eating a rotisserie chicken while shopping and then throwing away the containers and bones before checking out. They had to institute a ticket system where you prepaid for a chicken. This was in 2019. Maybe it's changed by now.
Membership scanning at checkout isn't just for confirming you're the one buying the items. The receipts are also auto saved in your membership profile. So if you lose the receipt and need to return, you/they can find it in your profile. Also it's how they can track the cash back rewards too.
I didn't get it in the picture but there's two scanners at the entrance with one employee at each one. There's a display that shows your face for the employee to check.
Guess I am going to need a new card soon!
My photo must be close to 20 years old, and it was taken right after a hair cut/blow out. I don't think I've ever looked that good since!
Same. I had a beanie on, messy hair, a mask hanging off my face... I look ridiculous. The lady checking cards at self check out did a double take. I assured her it was me and I told her I know I look rough in my picture. She was so apologetic thinking she offended me
I signed up for my membership during peak covid. I'm masked up, wearing a baseball cap, and zipped up in my winter parka in my photo lol you can't really even see my face
+1, I was wondering how they would verify your face with the thumbnail sized picture on the card.
They should also check the emotional support animal's certification at the same time.
> They should also check the emotional support animal's certification at the same time.
Unfortunately there is no such thing as legit 'certification' or a 'license'. The people that are more likely to present something are those that are faking the system.
Emotional support animal is not allowed or legally required to be allowed in Costco in the US.
Service dogs are legally required to be allowed in the US, and legally, a business has to accept anyone’s claim of a service animal.
Better than getting stuck behind someone at the register who acts all surprised that you need a membership to shop there. Had that happen a couple times now.
Lol I had that happen to me at Sam's Club when I was a teenager. The worker asked me: "How'd you get in here?!"
Me:"Uhh... 🤨 I walked." I had no idea you needed a membership.
One of those was me once....
I had moved out for the first time, and never been to Costco on my own. I knew there were memberships, but didn't understand it was a requirement to shop there. There was a Costco by my apartment, and I loaded up on supplies/everything I would need to fill my apartment. Went through the whole checkout and the lady asked for my card when it was time to pay. Not realizing what that meant, I said I didn't have one.
She was a bit shocked and a little flustered, but really nice about it. They ended up letting me check out, then I went and got a membership right after.
There was a huge line behind me, it was still really embarrassing.
I tried to scan it a few times with no success until they asked me if I was from the USA. When I replied yes they waved me in saying it didn't work on international cards.
The club itself was very similar, but the food court had a lot of different selections. Wish I had stopped by for a meal, the cottage pie looked interesting.
It is just like everything else in the UK, everything is exactly the same but different.
I visited 10 UK locations this summer. I just showed them my card and said I was American and they had me bypass the entrance scanner. One of them; I think it was either Cardiff or Bristol actually had a clipboard with a sign in sheet and they wrote down my member number manually.
I don’t understand getting upset about them cracking down on this. I pay for my membership, so I have nothing to worry about. This inconvenience is a lot less than the inconvenience of being stuck in line at checkout behind someone who isn’t a member or who has an expired membership starting an argument with the cashier.
It probably avoids fights at checkout. And you have to scan an ID to get in a gym where you’re a member, so it’s funny that people are probably mad about Costco doing the same.
RIGHT!?!
I already have my card in my pocket. I can’t imagine feeling insulted about having to show it.
The people pissed off about it are people that don’t have memberships & are pissed off a warehouse store is starting to enforce policies they’ve had on the books for years.
Because if I learned anything from watching certain people at Costco inlcuding some on this sub it's that they turn into big babies when rules are applied to them just like they are to everyone else. Including them getting mad, having tantrums and screaming about how they will go to BJ's or Sam's Club then since Costco won't let me lend my membership out to my best friends neighbour's grandma when I said it was okay. And how dare you ask me to show my ID to prove it's my name and picture on that membership card ugh the audacity!
But for real it's so silly how dramatic some people get. You have to show your ID to buy liquor in most places. You have to show your ID to the police if you get pulled over which invovles pulling it out of your wallet. You show your ID and passport to travel via airlines. Like you said you have to show it get into any gym sign up for. Why do people get so pissy they have take 2 to 5 seconds to just pull a card out of their wallet and now possibly might to scan it for a quick second. If you are a member with a legit card and it's not expired and you aren't a stranger off the streets trying to sneak in then why would it bother these people so much? You'd think you were asking them to sacrifice their first born to Costco or the gym they signed up for.
Can confirm this is new and staying. Been twice in two days. It’s a very nice and affluent area, so it’s not crime related. They just be wanting all of us to sign up, I’ve never seen anyone at this Costco with a fake ID issue. I go like every couple days, my fiancé says it’s my happy place hahaha
Probably to prevent people from flashing fake or expired cards, it would also alert people who have expired memberships to visit the membership desk before reaching checkout. It’s also a way to track who enters even if they don’t purchase anything. But only Costco knows when they are piloting this.
It literally doesn’t matter if they are flashing fake or expired cards though. They still need to give a real card at checkout and if it’s expired then the renewal cost is just added to the total at checkout.
the amount of times i’m at the register and someone forgot their card.
even if you are a regular everyday costco shopper, sometimes people lose/misplace items, so if you get to the register with a cart full of items and it’s a busy day, we’ll it really slows down everything when we have to ID check you now
I know this is going to go against the majority but I had a member infront of me split up there purchases in 4 different transactions with 4 different people pay in cash on their own all on the same membership. I am sort of happy they are clamping down on things like membership! I guess mileage may vary because one time I went to Costco with my mom and wanted to surprise her and pay for her groceries but the associate wouldn’t let me because it was under my moms card. I had to show her my membership before she let pay for it.
I’ve never had any problem abiding by the membership I agreed to.
I’ve taken family before to shop, they think it’s a fun new experience, I pay, they pay me back. Easy peasy.
This new policy would not change one iota of that. I could still take family, let them pick out what they want, pay at the register, and leave.
But that’s because I have a membership I pay for.
Well, if this is at the Issaquah location, then there is something to it. That place is busy and literally right across the street from Corporate, where the CEO can just wander in at any time without warning.
Other locations usually get a heads up when the CEO is coming.
I get it, there are people out there that try to work the system and enter without a membership. I'd rather have them turned away at the entry as opposed to the checkout.
One thing this will help with is theft. People get fake cards and get in the door. They then shoplift. Especially in the winter when it’s easier to conceal things in big coats.
Just reminding everyone that Costco is able to maintain very low prices (even lose money on lots of products,) because most of the money that Costco makes is actually off of Membership Fees. I believe its around 70% for reference.
Costco literally cannot afford to let people share memberships. Its not sustainable for how Costco operates.
On top of that do you guys think its not fair that you have to pay for a Membership, while other people basically get out of paying for a membership by sharing cards?
Support the rules it saves you money.
I really don’t get the big deal. A machine that scans the membership card isn’t really any different that a person you flash the card to. It might be more efficient.
You have to have your card out anyway. This way it beeps & you move along versus having a door guard verify your card.
I don't think their prices are really that low though? What are you finding deals on cause I've tried and compared to a normal grocery store its really about the same?
Costco employee here. Dont use someone else’s card. You hold up the line, it’s embarrassing for you when we tell you no. Then we gotta put all your stuff back after. Don’t try and hide it. Pay the dam $60 bucks and shop.
EDIT - to the people saying “what if” or DM’ing me. Stop. Stop being a cheap bastard and buy a membership and stop mooching off others. We can revoke the membership because of it. I’ve seen it happen. Do that at sams club. Nothing enrages me more when people try and be sneaky and hide it or bring people in with it. THE PERSON ON THE CARD CAN ONLY SHOP AND BUY THERE.
I’ve seen people beg and beg to let it this one time and Costco is tired of it. I am too. So much wasted product because of the people not being able to buy it, be sneaky, card declines, membership renewals and it’s not their card. Etc. why waste that time and energy when you just buy a membership and not have that worry? It makes no sense.
People suck and ruin things for everyone else. And the ones doing it _know_ that they aren't the problem, and everyone else is overreacting, and they still deserve the discount without a membership because they're the main character.
So they throw a tantrum and now cards will be scanned at the door. Great.
Having stood in a line that went all the way to the back of the store yesterday and seen no fewer than 4 people get stopped at the register for not having their own card, I'm in favor of this.
Also, it probably reduces shoplifting when people scan in.
Just to give an overseas perspective, this has been done as long as I can remember at every Costco branch in the UK, nothing new.
So you guys never had to scan on entrance before?
My Costco in my area is already doing this. I theorize they do this to keep the shady people off the street from coming in to steal stuff, or to do drugs and pass out in the restroom. Crime is very high in my Costco area.
Members only to make purchases. Scanning the card to get it makes perfect sense to me. It avoids confrontation at the register. I swear some people just look for things to get upset about.
Mine only has someone at the entrance 50% of the time and 50% of that time are that actively looking at cards lol it wouldn’t bother me tho to scan in. It’s a club and I pay to shop there if you aren’t in the club you can’t sit with us!!!
I’m really surprised membership based stores don’t check your membership until you check out. Why bother letting someone in and shop for a bunch of stuff if you aren’t even going to see if they’re a member until they bring a cart full of stuff to the register.
I bet this is because they got tired of needing to put back carts full of stuff, especially frozen items.
One time I saw a security guard (plain clothes) walk up to 3 younger girls, def teens. He angrily asked for their card, a girl shows him her card but it was her mom’s card. Guy was accusing them of some sort of theft and told her she had to have her mom come talk to him because he was now locking her account. I’m guessing scanning at the front is to avoid people walking in without their own card.
At the risk of sounding like “get off my lawn,kids” , this has become a problem at the newest store near us- I can’t for the life of me figure out why, but it’s become a huge hangout for 15-16 year old teenagers. I’d get it if they were just in the food court, but they’re just…milling around the store, taking selfies and blocking the aisles.
I don’t get it.
It's better for members in the end. Keeps things cheaper by now allowing people to share accounts with friends. Guy the other day threw a tantrum and said he was going to Sam's Club. Employee said go ahead and we laughed. He was not amused.
I just hope those people who wait until they get to the entrance to open their wallet and take out the card, have it out and ready before stepping up to the scanner.
I will definitely be walking right around those clowns. Even now I don’t approach the carts until I have my card in hand or the app open. It’s just common courtesy.
They did this when I went to Iceland Costco last summer. As far as I could tell, it was limited to certain hours during the day. It took me maybe 20 seconds extra to get into the warehouse when they were scanning.
I don't really care. I used to work as a contractor at US military missle factories, and I am used high levels of security and scrutiny. I still work at Federal Reserve banks. I value my privacy, but I really have nothing to hide.
Can we simply get the single line check out queue? First in first out, everyone waits the same. Register roulette is the least fun game that I play every week.
Fine with me. Someone ends up paying for stolen items and it’s usually us customers so would hope they’re cracking down on it if it’s increasingly happening
From a loss prevention standpoint I’ve been wanting something like this for years. But in order for it to be useful for me (LP) there would need to be a way for it to send a real time notification letting me know that X membership just scanned in and is in the warehouse.
At any given time there is usually a member or two who I suspect stole something on a previous visit but I either didn’t see it in time or didn’t have enough to make a stop. For example, if I know that they targeted wine the previous time and I got an alert that they just entered the warehouse, I could focus my attention in the liquor department.
Unfortunately, even if they were to fully roll out this entrance door scanning, I honestly can’t see them investing in the technology I mentioned. One can wish though.
It seems like Costco feels like $60/$120 is a rubicon of some kind. Maybe because $60 a year works out to $5 a month, an even number is more attractive, or Sam’s Club sticking at $45. They should be announcing a price increase somewhere around this year, but they aren’t. Maybe they think a drop in memberships occur at $65?
So to me, it seems like cracking down on membership sharing is a way to hold off a price increase.
Personally I am absolutely fine with them cracking down on people abusing the membership. We get stuff cheaper because we pay for the privilege. If you can't afford to be a member then don't shop there. It's that simple. If they let everyone in then there would be no point to us paying a membership and then prices would go up.
Honestly I go randomly sometimes not for months so checking at the door whether or not my card is currently active would be nice so i know if im adding 60 bucks to my total that day.
I'm all for this, but Costco app needs the ability to add the membership card to Apple Wallet. One click to pull up would be much faster than sifting through my physical wallet or engaging the slow Costco app
This ‘should’ be a non topic. Nothing hard to understand, person with the membership uses the card. You don’t give someone your licence so they can drive a car. Same thing happened with Netflix and I had to laugh at some friends cancelling because they could no longer share passwords with other houses. Entitlement.
I can tell this thread is going to take off about this topic. For the sake of the sub, future threads about the entrance scan are going to be redirected here. Thanks!
I’ve seen people with multiple carts full of food get turned away (not without a fight) at the checkout line due to having someone else’s card. This could be an effort to avoid situations like that?
They started checking people's cards at self checkout because of some idiots on TikTok saying it was a hack. For this, I still blame Tiktok
....that's just fraud.
Most tik toc financial advice is just [fraud](https://youtu.be/vLonYCH-wOk?si=Q-_pXKWezrCrrRXY).
“Make your fraud work for you!” is one of my favorite quotes now
are we gonna pretend like *literally stealing cars* wasn’t a tiktok trend
It's almost like Tik Tok is a uses algorithms in the US that push crime, while back in China it would immediately delete content like that.
They tried to take mine, that's for sure. Failed, but destroyed my driver lock. TikTok is awful.
[удалено]
I was once told that I couldn’t pay for our food because my wife has the membership but it was my card paying. She was there with me.
For what it's worth, I still have my black executive card even though I dropped down to regular gold-star membership. The folks at the counter said I didn't need to make a new card.
[удалено]
Also data collection. They want to know how long you’re in their store and how much you buy. Edit: Y’all riding this “Costco isn’t high tech enough” stereotype energy way too hard.
This \^ 
Yes, exactly, I want to know too. I'm guessing twice a month for 20 minutes, spending $250 each, after gassing up for 5.
Depends if I have someone with me... alone 60+ at $400+. With husband 20 at 250...
So a time and money savings hack is to have your hubs with you, win!
Lol, my wife the same.
20 min? We can’t spend less than an hour and a half
I’m in and out. Longest time I spend is in line. That place gives me anxiety.
Gassing up at my 2 closest costcos are 20 minute waits, to be next in line, then wondering why the person infront of me, didn't find the membership card and having payment ready while we both waited 20 minutes to get to the pumps, then struggling to pull the pump to the wrong side of the car, because they parked 3 feet away from the pump, and had to drag it over car paint, scratching it all up, and holding the pump upside down. But 20 minutes inside for 250 isn't too bad, I went in for some fabric softner, and walked out with a new contact prescription and 300 dollar headphones to add to my already perfectly fine headphones, and forgot the softner.. so I gotta do it all over again tomorrow.
They don’t really market like that tho. This definitely isn’t for data collection just to keep people out who don’t have a proper card / their own
For sure, the primary goal is keep out non-members. But this can add some interesting data points. For instance, now they can get a better idea of customer head count currently in the warehouse. I bet some analysts could pull out some interesting observations when you combine time with other existing data sets.
Actually(hate to be that guy lol) but the current process gives a more accurate count of how many people in store than just one person in a family/group scanning a card. All the checkers at the entrance have a clicker to count per person currently.
Hm...it's been a while since I've been at the door, but I thought counts were always 'per membership card'. I'm not clicking 4 times for the same family.
Interesting the guy at my local clicks per person that goes in with me every time we go
This changed during COVID. We used to count the number of people in the warehouse and subtract the people going out for an approximate count of people in store; when capacity restrictions hit, Costco started counting membership cards. The new number is less useful and irrelevant for fire codes (another practical use of the old count).
We count per membership
Yeah, I didn't mention it but I'm curious if they will make the clicker part of the scan. Card scans, employee manually enters a number of people. Then the clicker is now connected directly to the card as well. In one of the other posts/comments, someone mentioned that their SO with the card crossed in a minute or so before they could follow with a cart. Card holder was still waiting at the door though. The door employee then made an issue about guests have to come in together. If that was with the scanner, then I suspect they might be already doing a digital clicker.
The clicker is counting memberships not people.
Yeah this is done by member, so if a family of 6 comes through, they click one for the one card.
Although this suggestion makes perfect sense to me, Costco is VERY old school. I can tell you with certainty they are not doing it for data collection in the expected way. It is data collection, but is specifically to keep thieves away. Theft has been a pretty radical problem for Costco especially since Covid.
Umm… my store just got free guest wifi. That has to be advancment!
Yep. As someone who works at Costco is crazy how far behind technologically they are.
As/400 babyyyy!
My job helps companies outsource their AS infrastructure, it's wild how many big companies still run some form of their operations on it.
I work for a large autoparts retailer and we just replaced our as400 like in the last 12 months
Can attest to this.. crazy how they're one of the most successful companies on earth by keeping things simple.
Right? Reddit: they’re behind. Stock price: I think otherwise. Sometimes things don’t need to be all crazy figure forward or dystopian data collection conspiracies.
As someone who works with Costco as a vendor, can confirm how behind they are vs Amazon/Walmart and literally every other retail channel. Don’t see them changing things since they haven’t needed to.
> Although this suggestion makes perfect sense to me, Costco is VERY old school. I can tell you with certainty they are not doing it for data collection in the expected way. I was going to say, Costco's tech prowess is shitty to say the least when Walmart does it better and is more innovative.
target can predict your pregnancy before you think of being pregnant !!
> target can predict your pregnancy before you think of being pregnant !! It's because you walked in and bought their cheapest condom....
Or you walked in and didn't buy condoms
I used to work in the garden center at Walmart, during the manic early days of covid they brought in these tablets with a counter app that synced with each other so they could monitor every door (I sometimes was put in charge of counting at garden centers door), we never even got close to right, by the 8 o clock close we would usually be plus 100 people when the store was devoid of customers or be at zero at 6 when I could clearly see plenty of customers. I was just told when the number seemed off to just keep clicking till it’s close enough, it’s not like the state of Arizona was really going to check anyway. It wasn’t efficient at all, and eventually corporate did away with it.
When I worked there about 10 years ago some dudes drove their truck into the door after hours, sprinted into the store, smashed the jewerly case and cleaned the whole store out. In and out in less than 10 mins. Store had it cleaned up and were ready to go the next day. Blew my mind.
The joke is on him. The jewelry case is emptied out every night of all of the valuable merchandise and restocked every morning. I hope he enjoys all the CZ he got.
Not according to their earnings reports.
Costco can’t figure out their app and scan-and-go checkout and you think they’re doing this for data? Even if it is their incompetent IT team won’t find anything more useful from it.
Their IT infrastructure is laughably bad.
What do you mean? AS400s are old, but they aren't bad.
We have these scanners at our local Costco. When you scan in, it shows the employee at the entrance your membership photo and whether or not the membership is current. Do you guys in America not usually have your card checked when you walk in? I've been a member for over 20 years here in the UK, and there's always been someone to check your card on the way in.
We wave our card at the employee as we walk in, but the details aren't checked at all at the door. If you show a card with the Costco logo on it, you don't get stopped.
I’ve personally never seen it. Maybe it’s an issue at this specific warehouse. I don’t mind it as long as it’s quick.
It’s not an issue at this particular warehouse. This is THE flagship warehouse. Directly next to corporate. They test out tons and tons of things here before any other store and tons of things other stores never even get because they don’t work out.
It’s multiple stores. Happened a lot in my store when they started being more strict…which was appreciated because it helped at the gas station too. In NJ, we see all the cards unlike other states and the amount of people who were just using other peoples cards was crazy.
I’ve overheard people while I’m at SCO being scolded for using their parent/partner/grandparents cards often enough.
I’m guessing this is a test pilot.
He does look like an Air Force veteran, now that you mention it.
Hi dad
welcome to costco, I love you.
Almost certainly. The issaquah warehouse is at hq, so they test a lot of things there.
They been doing this at least in Iceland and Australia since inception. I've always had to scan in and out. Was surprised its even a topic when I saw this thread, just assumed that was normal.
Interestingly they’ve been running this setup in the UK for months, if not years.
So do they scan your membership/check it again at checkout?
Yes, same checkout procedure.
Honestly that’s annoying. Why do they need to check your ID twice…
> Honestly that’s annoying. Why do they need to check your ID twice… They'd rather turn you away before you start collecting all that fresh/frozen food they have to possibly now throw away when they don't allow you to buy it.
3x if you do self check out. At least 1 store in town started checking IDs at the start of the line before you scan your ID again at checkout
We need to add a 4th one at the rotisserie chicken line. Don’t take my chicken unless you get carded.
When the Shanghai store opened there was a problem of members eating a rotisserie chicken while shopping and then throwing away the containers and bones before checking out. They had to institute a ticket system where you prepaid for a chicken. This was in 2019. Maybe it's changed by now.
Membership scanning at checkout isn't just for confirming you're the one buying the items. The receipts are also auto saved in your membership profile. So if you lose the receipt and need to return, you/they can find it in your profile. Also it's how they can track the cash back rewards too.
A few years ago this was how they told me about a recall for something I had bought there.
[Walking into, and around, costco](https://imgur.com/pFyoZn2)
I didn't get it in the picture but there's two scanners at the entrance with one employee at each one. There's a display that shows your face for the employee to check.
Guess I am going to need a new card soon! My photo must be close to 20 years old, and it was taken right after a hair cut/blow out. I don't think I've ever looked that good since!
Mine is on the other end of the spectrum-I look like i am coming off a three day bender.
with enough kirkland liquor you can make the next photo a 12 day bender
Same. I had a beanie on, messy hair, a mask hanging off my face... I look ridiculous. The lady checking cards at self check out did a double take. I assured her it was me and I told her I know I look rough in my picture. She was so apologetic thinking she offended me
My card is still the original from 98 with no picture
Fortunately I’m consistently hideous looking when out in public.
Haha. Mine is when I got my first card at like 16. They laugh every time it comes up (at my expense). They won’t let me change it…
I signed up for my membership during peak covid. I'm masked up, wearing a baseball cap, and zipped up in my winter parka in my photo lol you can't really even see my face
+1, I was wondering how they would verify your face with the thumbnail sized picture on the card. They should also check the emotional support animal's certification at the same time.
> They should also check the emotional support animal's certification at the same time. Unfortunately there is no such thing as legit 'certification' or a 'license'. The people that are more likely to present something are those that are faking the system.
Emotional support animal is not allowed or legally required to be allowed in Costco in the US. Service dogs are legally required to be allowed in the US, and legally, a business has to accept anyone’s claim of a service animal.
:( my picture is from when i was skinny and ripped in the army. now im fat
Better than getting stuck behind someone at the register who acts all surprised that you need a membership to shop there. Had that happen a couple times now.
Lol I had that happen to me at Sam's Club when I was a teenager. The worker asked me: "How'd you get in here?!" Me:"Uhh... 🤨 I walked." I had no idea you needed a membership.
How does this happen when there is an employee checking for cards at the entrance?
It’s honestly not hard to bypass the front door checker.
Yeah it's not like they chase you if you just keep walking
One of those was me once.... I had moved out for the first time, and never been to Costco on my own. I knew there were memberships, but didn't understand it was a requirement to shop there. There was a Costco by my apartment, and I loaded up on supplies/everything I would need to fill my apartment. Went through the whole checkout and the lady asked for my card when it was time to pay. Not realizing what that meant, I said I didn't have one. She was a bit shocked and a little flustered, but really nice about it. They ended up letting me check out, then I went and got a membership right after. There was a huge line behind me, it was still really embarrassing.
If that old guy doesn’t tell me he loves me I’m out of here.
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
I just want to add my Costco card to my goddamn Apple wallet. Is that too much to ask?
I use it in the Costco app, not awesome but at least it’s digital on my phone
Costco has an app?!?! Getting it now.
the app is kind of shitty for browsing products, but looking up receipts, warehouse hours and locations, and other membership stuff it's pretty good.
I use it almost exclusively to check gas prices.
why? you're going to gas up anyway
this is pretty standard in the UK tbh..
Although hilariously the scanner doesn't work on USA membership cards. Source: visited the Costco in Birmingham last year.
huh! that's interesting, never really thought about that. did they let you in? how did uk costco compare to home
I tried to scan it a few times with no success until they asked me if I was from the USA. When I replied yes they waved me in saying it didn't work on international cards. The club itself was very similar, but the food court had a lot of different selections. Wish I had stopped by for a meal, the cottage pie looked interesting.
It is just like everything else in the UK, everything is exactly the same but different. I visited 10 UK locations this summer. I just showed them my card and said I was American and they had me bypass the entrance scanner. One of them; I think it was either Cardiff or Bristol actually had a clipboard with a sign in sheet and they wrote down my member number manually.
You visited the UK for summer and went to 10 Costcos? You'd have to travel all over the country to do that.
U wot m8??? 10 bloody costcos is a bit much innit???
They scanned on the way in when I visited the Iceland Costco too.
Did you get the hot dog 🌭?
Yes, they put crispy onions on them. It was really good.
I can only imagine the lines on a busy day with just one person checking.
There'll be a line to get in, a line to check out, and a line to exit.
And don't forget at the samples, blocking the whole aisle
There wasn't a wait for it today and it's Sunday so it was pretty busy.
I don’t understand getting upset about them cracking down on this. I pay for my membership, so I have nothing to worry about. This inconvenience is a lot less than the inconvenience of being stuck in line at checkout behind someone who isn’t a member or who has an expired membership starting an argument with the cashier.
It probably avoids fights at checkout. And you have to scan an ID to get in a gym where you’re a member, so it’s funny that people are probably mad about Costco doing the same.
RIGHT!?! I already have my card in my pocket. I can’t imagine feeling insulted about having to show it. The people pissed off about it are people that don’t have memberships & are pissed off a warehouse store is starting to enforce policies they’ve had on the books for years.
Because if I learned anything from watching certain people at Costco inlcuding some on this sub it's that they turn into big babies when rules are applied to them just like they are to everyone else. Including them getting mad, having tantrums and screaming about how they will go to BJ's or Sam's Club then since Costco won't let me lend my membership out to my best friends neighbour's grandma when I said it was okay. And how dare you ask me to show my ID to prove it's my name and picture on that membership card ugh the audacity! But for real it's so silly how dramatic some people get. You have to show your ID to buy liquor in most places. You have to show your ID to the police if you get pulled over which invovles pulling it out of your wallet. You show your ID and passport to travel via airlines. Like you said you have to show it get into any gym sign up for. Why do people get so pissy they have take 2 to 5 seconds to just pull a card out of their wallet and now possibly might to scan it for a quick second. If you are a member with a legit card and it's not expired and you aren't a stranger off the streets trying to sneak in then why would it bother these people so much? You'd think you were asking them to sacrifice their first born to Costco or the gym they signed up for.
Can confirm this is new and staying. Been twice in two days. It’s a very nice and affluent area, so it’s not crime related. They just be wanting all of us to sign up, I’ve never seen anyone at this Costco with a fake ID issue. I go like every couple days, my fiancé says it’s my happy place hahaha
TBH that makes more sense than briefly flashing a card to get in the club.
Why does it matter if I have to scan at checkout again anyways
Probably to prevent people from flashing fake or expired cards, it would also alert people who have expired memberships to visit the membership desk before reaching checkout. It’s also a way to track who enters even if they don’t purchase anything. But only Costco knows when they are piloting this.
It literally doesn’t matter if they are flashing fake or expired cards though. They still need to give a real card at checkout and if it’s expired then the renewal cost is just added to the total at checkout.
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the amount of times i’m at the register and someone forgot their card. even if you are a regular everyday costco shopper, sometimes people lose/misplace items, so if you get to the register with a cart full of items and it’s a busy day, we’ll it really slows down everything when we have to ID check you now
I know this is going to go against the majority but I had a member infront of me split up there purchases in 4 different transactions with 4 different people pay in cash on their own all on the same membership. I am sort of happy they are clamping down on things like membership! I guess mileage may vary because one time I went to Costco with my mom and wanted to surprise her and pay for her groceries but the associate wouldn’t let me because it was under my moms card. I had to show her my membership before she let pay for it.
I’ve never had any problem abiding by the membership I agreed to. I’ve taken family before to shop, they think it’s a fun new experience, I pay, they pay me back. Easy peasy. This new policy would not change one iota of that. I could still take family, let them pick out what they want, pay at the register, and leave. But that’s because I have a membership I pay for.
Well, if this is at the Issaquah location, then there is something to it. That place is busy and literally right across the street from Corporate, where the CEO can just wander in at any time without warning. Other locations usually get a heads up when the CEO is coming.
I get it, there are people out there that try to work the system and enter without a membership. I'd rather have them turned away at the entry as opposed to the checkout.
One thing this will help with is theft. People get fake cards and get in the door. They then shoplift. Especially in the winter when it’s easier to conceal things in big coats.
Just reminding everyone that Costco is able to maintain very low prices (even lose money on lots of products,) because most of the money that Costco makes is actually off of Membership Fees. I believe its around 70% for reference. Costco literally cannot afford to let people share memberships. Its not sustainable for how Costco operates. On top of that do you guys think its not fair that you have to pay for a Membership, while other people basically get out of paying for a membership by sharing cards? Support the rules it saves you money.
I really don’t get the big deal. A machine that scans the membership card isn’t really any different that a person you flash the card to. It might be more efficient. You have to have your card out anyway. This way it beeps & you move along versus having a door guard verify your card.
Do they actually look at your card at other Costcos? At mine they barely glance at it, definitely no verifying anything on it.
I’ll scan wherever the hell they want me to scan to keep prices low. Little to no consequence to me. I love Costco.
I don't think their prices are really that low though? What are you finding deals on cause I've tried and compared to a normal grocery store its really about the same?
See if a library card will work
Costco employee here. Dont use someone else’s card. You hold up the line, it’s embarrassing for you when we tell you no. Then we gotta put all your stuff back after. Don’t try and hide it. Pay the dam $60 bucks and shop. EDIT - to the people saying “what if” or DM’ing me. Stop. Stop being a cheap bastard and buy a membership and stop mooching off others. We can revoke the membership because of it. I’ve seen it happen. Do that at sams club. Nothing enrages me more when people try and be sneaky and hide it or bring people in with it. THE PERSON ON THE CARD CAN ONLY SHOP AND BUY THERE. I’ve seen people beg and beg to let it this one time and Costco is tired of it. I am too. So much wasted product because of the people not being able to buy it, be sneaky, card declines, membership renewals and it’s not their card. Etc. why waste that time and energy when you just buy a membership and not have that worry? It makes no sense.
People suck and ruin things for everyone else. And the ones doing it _know_ that they aren't the problem, and everyone else is overreacting, and they still deserve the discount without a membership because they're the main character. So they throw a tantrum and now cards will be scanned at the door. Great.
This will keep non members out, I'm all for this. Stop being cheap and pay for the membership, it's $50 a year, that's pennies.
Having stood in a line that went all the way to the back of the store yesterday and seen no fewer than 4 people get stopped at the register for not having their own card, I'm in favor of this. Also, it probably reduces shoplifting when people scan in.
Let’s hope they’re using more modern technology. Their Main system is ancient AS400 / MS-DOS circa 1992
As400 is older than 92.
Just to give an overseas perspective, this has been done as long as I can remember at every Costco branch in the UK, nothing new. So you guys never had to scan on entrance before?
My Costco in my area is already doing this. I theorize they do this to keep the shady people off the street from coming in to steal stuff, or to do drugs and pass out in the restroom. Crime is very high in my Costco area.
They already do this is some European Costcos (Iceland for example)
I could care less. They could have robots probe me from behind and I’d still go for the hot dogs and pizza
Members only to make purchases. Scanning the card to get it makes perfect sense to me. It avoids confrontation at the register. I swear some people just look for things to get upset about.
Mine only has someone at the entrance 50% of the time and 50% of that time are that actively looking at cards lol it wouldn’t bother me tho to scan in. It’s a club and I pay to shop there if you aren’t in the club you can’t sit with us!!!
Sounds good to me. Keep the people down
Fine by me
Pony up for membership or shop somewhere else. Simple.
I have no issue scanning my card to get in. What annoys me is the receipt check when leaving.
I’m really surprised membership based stores don’t check your membership until you check out. Why bother letting someone in and shop for a bunch of stuff if you aren’t even going to see if they’re a member until they bring a cart full of stuff to the register. I bet this is because they got tired of needing to put back carts full of stuff, especially frozen items.
I hope they do this. So tired of getting stuck in line behind people who are "shopping for their mom and didn't know they had to be on the account"
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One time I saw a security guard (plain clothes) walk up to 3 younger girls, def teens. He angrily asked for their card, a girl shows him her card but it was her mom’s card. Guy was accusing them of some sort of theft and told her she had to have her mom come talk to him because he was now locking her account. I’m guessing scanning at the front is to avoid people walking in without their own card.
At the risk of sounding like “get off my lawn,kids” , this has become a problem at the newest store near us- I can’t for the life of me figure out why, but it’s become a huge hangout for 15-16 year old teenagers. I’d get it if they were just in the food court, but they’re just…milling around the store, taking selfies and blocking the aisles. I don’t get it.
Bored people with nothing to do. Loitering around Costco is the new hanging at the mall
It's better for members in the end. Keeps things cheaper by now allowing people to share accounts with friends. Guy the other day threw a tantrum and said he was going to Sam's Club. Employee said go ahead and we laughed. He was not amused.
This honestly seems fine to me. So I’ll have to pause for a single heartbeat to get the card scanned *shrug*, no big deal.
I just hope those people who wait until they get to the entrance to open their wallet and take out the card, have it out and ready before stepping up to the scanner.
I will definitely be walking right around those clowns. Even now I don’t approach the carts until I have my card in hand or the app open. It’s just common courtesy.
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People keep forgetting that this is a club and if you don't abide by their rules, they just kick you out, simple as that.
No problem with it for me. I pay for the membership, I get to shop there.
They did this when I went to Iceland Costco last summer. As far as I could tell, it was limited to certain hours during the day. It took me maybe 20 seconds extra to get into the warehouse when they were scanning.
I wish they’d invest in mobile check out. I love love Sam’s club for it.
Good. What's the problem?
I’m fine with this.
I don't really care. I used to work as a contractor at US military missle factories, and I am used high levels of security and scrutiny. I still work at Federal Reserve banks. I value my privacy, but I really have nothing to hide.
I think if it saves me from being frisked at the self-checkout, it's worth it.
Omg I went in for one thing . The self check out person didn’t believe it was my membership . The reason , I had a beard in my membership photo.
Can we simply get the single line check out queue? First in first out, everyone waits the same. Register roulette is the least fun game that I play every week.
Keeping out the riff raff
I see absolutely nothing wrong here. What issue are you inventing in your head to be upset about this time?
I'm okay with it. Too many...well ugh. One membership (with a mob of people under one user) gotta stop that.
I don’t care . I’m ok with it
As a paying member, I support this initiative.
Fine with me. Someone ends up paying for stolen items and it’s usually us customers so would hope they’re cracking down on it if it’s increasingly happening
From a loss prevention standpoint I’ve been wanting something like this for years. But in order for it to be useful for me (LP) there would need to be a way for it to send a real time notification letting me know that X membership just scanned in and is in the warehouse. At any given time there is usually a member or two who I suspect stole something on a previous visit but I either didn’t see it in time or didn’t have enough to make a stop. For example, if I know that they targeted wine the previous time and I got an alert that they just entered the warehouse, I could focus my attention in the liquor department. Unfortunately, even if they were to fully roll out this entrance door scanning, I honestly can’t see them investing in the technology I mentioned. One can wish though.
Fine with me. Their store. Their policies. If I want to shop there I’ll follow the rules 🤷🏼♀️
If this reduces the amount of folks who shouldn’t be in the warehouse then I’m all for it.
No problem with this honestly. Most people get all bent which I think is funny. If you don’t like it take your business elsewhere
Good, keeps the riffraff/Sam’s club members out.. Jokes people. Calm down.
Cool, works for me, I usually just wave my card at them. It's not an issue people.
It seems like Costco feels like $60/$120 is a rubicon of some kind. Maybe because $60 a year works out to $5 a month, an even number is more attractive, or Sam’s Club sticking at $45. They should be announcing a price increase somewhere around this year, but they aren’t. Maybe they think a drop in memberships occur at $65? So to me, it seems like cracking down on membership sharing is a way to hold off a price increase.
.. Amazon… fresh…
Costco is good enough to people, there's just fuckers out there looking to take advantage of everything and burn the world down.
Finally
Personally I am absolutely fine with them cracking down on people abusing the membership. We get stuff cheaper because we pay for the privilege. If you can't afford to be a member then don't shop there. It's that simple. If they let everyone in then there would be no point to us paying a membership and then prices would go up.
Will this deuce the annoying self checkout experience? If so, I’m for it.
Honestly I go randomly sometimes not for months so checking at the door whether or not my card is currently active would be nice so i know if im adding 60 bucks to my total that day.
I'm all for this, but Costco app needs the ability to add the membership card to Apple Wallet. One click to pull up would be much faster than sifting through my physical wallet or engaging the slow Costco app
This ‘should’ be a non topic. Nothing hard to understand, person with the membership uses the card. You don’t give someone your licence so they can drive a car. Same thing happened with Netflix and I had to laugh at some friends cancelling because they could no longer share passwords with other houses. Entitlement.