Costco Rolls Out New Membership Policy Trial Program Met with Backlash from Customers

Costco is bringing out 💻Technology to limit non-members shopping at the chain’s stores, but some shoppers don’t like a high-tech version of the Membership Police greeting them at the door.

As noted by CBS, members currently have to show a membership card when they enter a Costco store. Cards are not transferrable, although the company allows two per household.

But the company has been finding that, particularly in the age of self-checkout, non-members are using the cards of Costco members to do their shopping.

Costco tried to fight that by requiring cards to be scanned at checkout time, but it’s experimenting with a new approach.

Costco finance chief Richard Galanti said that since the pandemic, the company has seen a spike in the number of people sharing membership, according to CNN.

And so, it will try scanning at the store entrance.

“It speeds up the process at entry and speeds up the process at the checkout,” Galanti said, according to CNN. “That’s what we believe and we’re going to pilot it.”

Costco Insider recently posted on its