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.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      in some states, yes. Other than that, no. And not all Costcos (Small Business Cetners for instance) have pharmacies.

        • squiblet@kbin.social
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          10 months ago

          That’s great, have fun going into Costco! Anyway, I originally got a membership because I was getting a prescription that was $360 without a membership and $310 with it, and membership is $60. Once you price out the discounts using the pharmacy without a membership isn’t a very sound plan. I’m also not sure why people seem excited about going into Costco and not buying anything.