Attention customers who shop at Costco: you’ve been warned.
If you are known to “borrow” your mother’s or a neighbor’s Costco membership card on a regular basis, you might expect to be questioned the next time you use it at the register.
Costco, whose headquarters are located in Issaquah, Washington, said on Friday that the company’s membership policy has not changed. Customers still require an active membership in order to purchase at the warehouse club, and memberships cannot be transferred from one person to another.
According to the business, Costco has noticed that non-member shoppers have been using membership cards that do not belong to them as the store has erected more lanes for customers to check out themselves at the register.
As a result, the retail establishment is adopting a stricter enforcement strategy.
According to a statement that was distributed through email by Costco, the company is of the opinion that “it is not right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members.” “Since we already ask for the membership card at checkout, we are now asking to see the member’s photo on their membership card when they use our self-service checkout registers,” we said.
The workers of Costco clubs in Rockwall and Dallas were doing random spot checks, and during such inspections they asked customers for photo identification such as driver’s licenses.
The largest wholesale club in the United States, which had sales of $222.7 billion the previous year, stated in the statement that the reason it is able to offer lower pricing is because of the annual membership fees it charges, which range from $60 for a “Gold Star” level to $120 for a “Executive” level. Membership fees at Costco are recorded in a manner distinct from total sales. In the fiscal year that concluded in August of last year, fees were $4.22 billion. This represented a sizeable portion of the company’s overall earnings of $5.84 billion for the year.
According to the website of the corporation, as of the month of May, there were 124.7 million cardholders at Costco, representing 69.1 million homes.
According to the company, “Costco is able to keep our prices as low as possible because our membership fees help offset our operational expenses. Because of this, our membership fee and structure are important to us.” [C]ostco is known for its competitive pricing.
Along with Netflix and other companies, Costco is investigating methods to curb the widespread practice of sharing memberships and subscriptions.
No responses yet