The warehouse club giant, Costco, has steadily been growing in popularity thanks to its unique offerings and competitively low price points. The food court run by the wholesale giant is often going viral for its large yet affordable portion sizes or for creative hacks using the various foods on offer. The chicken bake, for example, becomes a viral sensation on TikTok every so often with members sharing how tasty a snack it is. More recently, a “hack” whereby you take a slice of Costco pizza and wrap it around a hot dog became a viral trend on the social media platform. Between the food court and the warehouse styled stores, Costco members are often having fun when they shop with the retailer. There is also a Reddit thread dedicated solely to Costco members wherein shoppers share their experiences as well as tips and tricks to truly optimize your shopping experience.
Attempting this scheme at checkout could get you banned
Costco utilizes a membership based business model to run its stores and as such, only those with a membership card can gain access to the warehouse and make purchases. It is due to this annual membership fee revenue that the retailer is able to offer such low prices on its products and as such, the company is rather strict in the implementation of its rules and regulations.
Whilst food hacks are all in good (and tasty) fun, shoppers do sometimes find loopholes in the system that tread more on the “unethical, but okay” and even the “plain wrong” side of things. A prime example of this would be the manner in which members claim a free year of membership by complaining about being dissatisfied and thus, getting the membership fee refunded close to the end of the year.
Another work-around that has been noticed increasingly lately is non-members making use of a member’s card to checkout at the self checkout counters. The retailer is quite strict about non-members making purchases at the warehouse and if self checkout is used, it is likely that the employees will be none the wiser. However, if an employee does happen to notice this scheme at play, both the non-member and the membership card holder will now be at risk of getting banned from the store. If word on social media is to be believed, the likelihood of you being caught attempting this kind of purchase is actually almost guaranteed. In order to aid this issue, “stores have begun checking membership cards against picture IDs in the self-checkout line,” according to the official Costco website.
Redditors have also reported that employees are now stationed at self checkout to ensure the membership card does in fact belong to the person making the purchase.
Another Reddit user shared a post that read, “almost [being] banned for life for bringing a friend w/o membership who wanted to score some of the bulk Ouija board packs on my card.”
Can you really not enter the warehouse without a membership card?
A standard membership with the retailer comes at the annual cost of $65 and whilst some find this fee to be worth its cost when compared to the overall savings found with the retailer, this amount is a bit steep for those on a tighter budget. However, there is a legitimate workaround that could gain non-members access to a warehouse. With an average membership, members are allowed to bring in two non-members with them as guests. The only issue with this is that the non-members will not be allowed to make any purchases themselves.
Alternatively, if a member purchases a Shop Card which is a Costco gift card and gifts it to a non–member, the non-member will be allowed to both enter and make purchases at the warehouse. Shop Cards can only be purchased by existing members, however.