How shoppers feel about new Costco membership card scanners

I don’t think it’s a big issues since you already have to pull out your proof of membership at the door. I can’t help but wonder if they will use it for data collection purposes as well to see how long your in the store etc

I don't quite understand this though since you need a card to make the purchase at the check out stand.

lol let’s create a new annoyance/problem to “solve” a nonexistent issue.

First you get used to scanning you card. Then a camera will doing a face match against your id within a year.

Meh, one small inconvenience to keep non-members out. The food court got better (fewer people) since they started requiring membership to buy. Where else can you get such large Pizza and hot dog combo for such small cost? Costco truly values its members.

Some products in Costco is as expensive as any other store and they claim most the profit is from membership? Very fishy

The guy says it's to cut down on people shopping for free, but... you have to scan at checkout so that's B.S. It doesn't save an employee, they still need the one human to make sure you actually scan and don't just walk by it. Seems pointless to me.

"so people just can't sort of sneak into the store and buy things" ... wtf lol we already have to scan our card at checkout so idk what he's even talking about like who even is this man 😂 god forbid people buy things lmao I gaurantee you the number of memberships will not increase like they think it will. Edit: If I was borrowing someone else's card because I didnt want to pay a membership I certainly wouldn't just start paying for a membership now 😆

There's no real way of replacing an in-person attendant at the front door to verify customer membership. If they go, people will just walk right in whether or not there's a membership scan reader. One great example of eliminating an in-person verification is MUNI. When I took MUNI in the 80s and 90s, you had to enter through the front door and pay your fare in front of the bus driver or train operator to verify everyone paid to ride. Once MUNI pushed for the clipper card and allowed people to enter in the rear of the bus or train while confining drivers and operators to just doing that and not verifying payment, MUNI started seeing a huge reduction in revenue and is now in a massive deficit. So Costco is still going to need front door people.

If you have a Costco cash card, you still can get in. Buying alcohol or medication in pharmacy. Also don’t require a membership.

Keep the rift raft out. Oh wait, I'm the rift raft. Hahaha.

The Boston business professor said Costco doesn't want people to just enter the store. That Costco wants members to buy something. A member can still leave the store (exit only now) without buying something (what's next? Can't exit without a purchase receipt?). There's really no logic to the scanner because no one "just walking in" can buy anything without a membership card anyway. Is the scanner going to match up the person's face to the picture on the card, too? Not. That's still the job of the Costco employee at the entrance (there he is in his spot in this video). This scanner is some kind of business model for Costco and has nothing to do with the shopping experience of it's customers other than to frustrate. Because as we all know, cards and scanners can, and will be problematic at times.

I’m fine with it. What I hate is when they try to upsell memberships during checkout. So annoying!

Yeah, but who's going to make sure you scan your card. They still need to have someone there. The only real thing that's happening is membership verification.

Nobody can buy anything without having a card anyway! You have to have your card at checkout. They scan it at the register. Apparently they no longer want anyone who isn't a member coming in to look around the store to see if they might want to join. That's ridiculous. Another reason why I like Sam's better than Costco. Costco also won't take my Mastercard and Sam's will. Costco apparently has some exclusive deal with Visa that leaves out anybody who doesn't have a Visa card.

Doesn't bother me. I've been a member for over thirty years.

I wonder how enforceable it is. Some states won't let membership stores restrict alcohol sales to the the general public. And all states require these type of stores to sell prescriptions to everyone.

They want people to buy their own membership instead of sharing family or friends like Netflix

Costco employee here, it’s here because people the last 4 years have abused the system. Using mommy and daddy’s membership. That’s how Costco makes their money. Think of it as it’s not fair for you to pay 60 to 120 bucks a month while other people get in for free using someone else’s card.

I fine with it. That will learn those people that leech off other people's cards