I visited a local Costco and they have started scanning memeberships, I forgot what the person told me but I think they have been doing it for a couple of weeks, not sure though.
I wonder how they will get around the alcohol only non-members.
While this legal side-step is great news for state residents hoping to save money on alcohol, it’s not as simple as merely walking into the store and heading to the liquor section. Since greeters often check for membership cards at the door, someone hoping to take advantage of this loophole will likely need to tell the greeter they are there to purchase alcohol. Once inside, they will typically be given a temporary number by the membership desk, but will not be allowed to grab extra grocery items or hit the food court for a snack during their shopping spree; aside from the pharmacy and liquor, everything else at Costco is out of bounds.
In states where this alcohol loophole exists, additional limitations may apply. According to My Bartender, Costco stores in Delaware, Indiana, Texas, and New York are only allowed to sell wine and beer; other states permit the sale of hard liquor, while the state of Vermont insists that club stores sell their spirits to members only. Consumer Reports notes that these same policies apply to other club stores including BJ’s Wholesale Club — but not to Sam’s Club stores, which already have a nationwide policy of allowing non-members to purchase alcohol.[1]
Costco Wholesale is installing membership scanners at the entrances of all of its locations to discourage non-members from shopping at the stores.
Guests must also be accompanied by a valid member in order to enter a store, Costco added.
The discount retailer began testing the technology earlier this year, with Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti relaying that more people had been sharing memberships since the pandemic in 2020.
Costco earlier in the year cracked down on who uses its food court to ensure that only members can capitalize on its famous $1.50 wiener-and-soda deal.
Costco said last month it was hiking its basic membership fee for the first time since 2017, increasing the annual charge to $65 from $60. The roughly 8% cost increase takes effect on September 1, the warehouse club announced. The cost of a premium membership is rising to $130 from $120. Costco also said the maximum annual 2% reward for its executive membership will rise to $1,250 from $1,000.
Did they change the rules? I thought there were two things you could access without membership:
-Food court -Alcohol
Food court rules have depended on the location for years now. Where I live the rule is typically, if the food court is outside you’re good, but if it’s inside you need a membership. Never knew about the booze rules.
Oh that makes another comment I made sound ill informed 😅All of the states I have shopped at Costco have allowed non members to access food courts no matter where they were located, inside or out.
Velcome to Costco. Your papers, please.
It’s a paid membership system. What makes you think you have the right to go in without a membership?
Do you bust into private gyms and demand to work out without paying?
Get outta here
Because browsing isn’t buying. You absolutely can go into a gym and check it out without a membership.
Edit: Expecting me to buy a Costco membership before I can see things like whether or not they’re keeping the place clean and their produce fresh is unreasonable in my opinion,
You can go as a guest with someone who has a membership. As far as I know, if someone gives you a Costco gift card you can go in without a membership. If you tell them you are there to consider a membership, they at least used to let you in. But you can’t buy anything without signing up.
You cannot have alcohol or pharmacy locked behind memberships. So they have to let you in.
They cannot enforce this unless they remove the pharmacy. Just refuse and walk in.
This is dependent on local law. For ours, only the food court and customer service are accessible without a card, and you use a different entrance for it.
Their website states
You don’t need to be a Costco member to purchase Costco Pharmacy prescriptions online or at our warehouses. Our Pharmacy counter will accept several different forms of payment, including cash, debit/ATM cards, Costco Shop Cards, and Visa®.
You can just go in, everywhere.
Also you can get a gift card of any value and keep it forever to get in.
Hot dogs aren’t wrapped anymore and buns got smaller. Fuck the new guy.
still a really good deal imo. changing the price is absolutely off the table but it’s still a solid price for what you get given the current state of fast food prices.
It’s 1000% a bellwether of the general state of approaching enshitification at Costco. Light justify all you need, the hot dog and the rotisserie chicken are sacred idols in that space and frankly, maintaining the exact experience and price of those, COMPLETELY in tact, should be factored in indefinitely as the basic cost of doing business for Costco - they know that. There is no way they do this unless they have decided that they want to send a clear, “fuck you, we’re the new guys and we’ll do what we want to boil you fucking frogs in the pot!”
Wait you guys got conned into paying to go shopping?!?
All those leaded petrol fumes really did a number didn’t they lol
I guess you don’t realise when someone’s profiting off you left, right and centre lol
Think about it; what does the membership fee actually cover?
Employee benefits and wages, mostly. The membership fees are the primary profit of Costco. Without that wages would go down, and prices would rise. You do know that businesses need to turn a profit to stay in business, right?
The fee might be an upfront cost, and if you don’t buy enough goods during the year it may not be worth it, but I can tell you from my experience of just my wife and I being empty nesters, we have an “Executive” membership which costs even more than a regular membership (gasp!)with the added benefit of getting a small percentage of our annual spending coming back to us as essentially a gift certificate. That gift certificate pays for our membership, so, yeah, it’s worth it.
