Minnesota Costco Stores Rolling Out New Policies to Keep Non-Members Out

Costco is cracking down on sharing memberships, and the Duluth warehouse store could see changes soon.

Costco says that they are seeing an uptick in non-members using cards belonging to someone else to gain access and shop at the store reserved for members only. One of the reasons for the uptick in membership sharing is Costco rolling out self-checkout to many of its stores, including the Duluth location.

SEE ALSO: Minnesota Sam’s Club Using New Tech to Eliminate Receipt Checks

To fight this problem, Costco has begun to test some new technology and new policies at some stores, one of the changes you may notice immediately is being asked to show a photo ID with your membership card when using the self-checkout, I've never not used the self-checkout, but apparently this is something that has been done at regular checkout lines forever. In a statement about the change, Costco says, "We don't feel it's right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members."

Costco is also busy testing some new technology that will require people entering the store to scan membership cards at the front door, versus just showing your card to an employee. A photo was shared on Reddit of one of these new scanners in action at a Washington store.

Costco claims that scanning cards at the front door could speed up the process at checkout by removing the need to check cards when checking out. Users on the Reddit thread about the topic point out that they have seen people with carts full of food being denied checkout and having to return that food back to the store is costly and time-consuming, so checking cards at the entrance could also help with this issue.

Costco allows for members to give a second card to another person in their household and members are allowed to bring up to two guests on each visit, but beyond that, you'll need a membership to shop at Costco.

Membership scan at entrance
byu/mike753951 inCostco