Bad news if you’re mooching off of someone else’s Costco membership: The retail giant is cracking down.
When you enter Costco, you need to show your membership card to an employee to shop. Costco membership cards are non-transferable, but the company allows members to give a second household card to one other person in their home. Anyone with a card can bring up to two guests to the club during each visit, the company stipulates.
But Costco has noticed that non-members have been sneaking in with membership cards that don’t belong to them — particularly since Costco expanded self-checkout.
Costco recently started asking for shoppers’ membership cards along with a photo ID at the self-checkout registers, the same policy as regular checkout lanes, to crack down. “We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in announcing the change.
Semi-related fun fact that I like to share; Costco doesn’t require membership for alcohol or pharmacy purchases.
Used to be food court too, but I believe they stopped that in 2020 ish
My local Costco doesn’t require a membership to buy from the cafeteria. You order from a computer and pay.
IIRC, there are sometimes state laws that prevent them from restricting access to the food court. It depends.
Is their alcohol not wholesale? I’ve noticed their alcohol prices aren’t always the best.
It depends on the state laws. My state sets minimum prices for liquor, so you don’t save any money on vodka, whiskey, etc. by going to Costco.
My understanding is that in order to sell alcohol it needs to be available to ‘the public at large’. Madison Square Garden lost its license after kicking out a lawyer for the same reason.
It’s very state by state; however, in most jurisdictions my understanding is the same as yours.
Wouldn’t that only apply to bottom shelf alcohol? Or is the minimum so high that it even raises the price of mid tier?