Wholesale and retail giant Costco is cracking down on membership sharing, and it’s a little reminiscent of what Netflix did a few months ago.
If you’re a Costco member in Canada, you’re no stranger to having to show your membership card upon entry and checkout. But you probably also have relatives and family members who’ve asked if they can use your card to get some sweet deals without paying for the perks.
The latter is precisely what Costco is cracking down on.
First things first — unlike Netflix, no changes are coming to Costco’s membership plans and prices.
“Costco’s membership policy has not changed,” a Costco spokesperson confirmed to Daily Hive in an email. “Costco is able to keep our prices as low as possible because our membership fees help offset our operational expenses, making our membership fee and structure important to us.”
But the company shared a new rule it is adopting to tighten membership abuse.
“Our membership policy states that our membership cards are not transferable, and since expanding our self-service checkout, we’ve noticed that non-member shoppers have been using membership cards that do not belong to them,” the spokesperson further told us. “We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members.”
Management confirmed that it is now asking to see membership cards with the customer’s photo at its self-service checkout registers.
“If their membership card does not have a photo, then we ask for a photo ID,” they added.
So the next time you head out to your nearest Costco for a big grocery run, make sure you have your photo ID handy in case you need to use self-service.
You might be turned away if you don’t have it.
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