Costco shoppers, you’ve been warned.
If you routinely “borrow” your mother’s or neighbor’s Costco membership card, next time you’re probably going to be stopped at the checkout.
Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco confirmed Friday that i ts membership policy hasn’t changed — shoppers still need an active membership to shop and it’s not transferable — but it’s being abused.
As Costco has installed more self-checkout lanes, the retailer said, it has noticed that non-member shoppers have been using membership cards that do not belong to them.
So, the retailer is taking a more aggressive enforcement stance.
“We don’t feel it’s right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in an emailed statement. “As we already ask for the membership card at checkout, we are now asking to see their membership card with their photo at our self-service checkout registers.”
During spot checks of Costco clubs in Rockwall and Dallas, employees were asking shoppers for their photo IDs, such as driver’s licenses.
The largest U.S. wholesale club with sales last year of $222.7 billion said in the statement that its annual membership fees, $60 for a “Gold Star” and $120 for “Executive” level are what help it deliver lower prices. Costco reports membership fees separate from total sales. Fees amounted to $4.22 billion in its fiscal year that ended last August and was a good chunk of its profit last year of $5.84 billion.
As of May, Costco had 124.7 million cardholders from 69.1 million households, according to the company’s website.
“Costco is able to keep our prices as low as possible because our membership fees help offset our operational expenses, making our membership fee and structure important to us,” the company said.
Costco joins Netflix and others looking at how to stop rampant sharing of memberships and subscriptions.
Netflix told its U.S. members in May that Netflix accounts are for “you and the people you live with – your household.”
Since its password-sharing crackdown, Netflix has added new subscribers at a rate it hadn’t seen in years, according to published reports.
