First rule at Costco—you do not share your personal membership card. To make sure “shopping buddies” have their own separate card, the Costco administration recently restricted the protocol that should prevent they even enter the store. Stores will be fitted out with ID scanners that will show who the card belongs to.
“Over the coming months, membership scanning devices will be used at the entrance door of your local warehouse. Once deployed, prior to entering, all members must scan their physical or digital membership card by placing the barcode or QR Code against the scanner,” Costco said in a statement released online.
Costco’s profits mostly come from the annual membership fee, accounting for 4.6 billion dollars last year, an 8% increase from 2022. Cracking down on non-members is essential. “We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefit and pricing as our members,” they wrote in a statement last year.
In 2020, Costco made the first move by announcing that non-members would no longer be able to eat at their low-cost food court—a hot dog and drink combo is only $1.50, and a pizza slice is $1.99. Then, in 2023, they tried to make a major change by adding photos on the membership cards and showing them to the cashiers both at the registers and the self-checkout machines. At the beginning of this year, they started to provide randomly selected stores with membership card scanners. They also warn, “please be prepared to show your valid photo ID.”
However, Costco allows its members to bring up to two guests with them—they always stay with the valid member and cannot purchase any item.
Last month Costco announced it would be raising its yearly membership fees by $5 to $65 for the first time since 2017. The change goes into effect on September 1.
