Costco enforces stricter rules: no card, no entry for non-members
Costco customer Elizabeth Pagan shares her experience of forgetting her membership card while shopping at the store.
"I buy grapes, fruit. I buy $200, $300, and I've had to leave it there not having the card and I tell someone can you pay for me, they say no, no, no," Pagan said.
But now, Pagan never forgets to bring her Costco membership card to the store.
This is a good thing because Costco has just started cracking down on non-members using others' membership cards.
Costco customer Elizabeth Pagan thinks that the new policy of cracking down on non-members using others' membership cards is unfair.
Other Costco customers shopping in East Harlem also shared the same sentiment.
"It might be a little bit petty to do that because they are still making money because people are shopping," said Nicky Sunshine, who has a business Costco membership card. --- Nicky Sunshine, a Costco customer, shares her love for the store.
"Costco is my favorite store. I love Costco," she said.
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Costco cracks down on its membership sharing polices
The retailer revealed it will tighten its membership polices in response to its self-service checkout expansion.
When asked if she has ever lent her membership card to someone who doesn't have one, Sunshine admitted that she has.
However, not all shoppers are as generous as Sunshine.
Another Costco shopper, who preferred to remain anonymous, said "Have you ever loaned your card to someone else? I wouldn't. I'm stingy."
A Costco membership costs $60 a year. Costco says that it's an important source of revenue, and it helps them give their customers deep discounts.
Trae Bodge, a shopping and retail expert, explains that wholesale clubs like Costco have very tight margins and a big part of their income comes from memberships.
"They have very tight margins at wholesale clubs, also offering us amazing prices. So a big part of their income is from these cards, these memberships." Bodge said.
Costco has seen a rise in people shopping with someone else's membership card since the expansion of self-checkout kiosks.
To address this issue, shoppers will now have to show membership cards with a photo or a photo ID at checkout. --- Andrea Woroch, a money-saving expert, explains that the more people pay for memberships, the better the deals that Costco can offer.
According to Costco's annual report last year, the revenue from membership fees alone was $4.2 billion dollars.
This figure could potentially increase if no one was sharing the membership cards.