Originally published at: Like Netflix, Costco cracking down on membership sharing | Boing Boing
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“self-service” my ass.
There are more employees manning those than the regular lanes the last few times we’ve been there.
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This is super annoying to me after it happened last week. If i have to show my card at the door and have the image checked instead of just flashing it that’s ok. But showing the card before checkout and then again during checkout just feels like a “papers please” kind of environment.
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I shop at Costco a lot. With the volume of business they do, there is no way in hell they’re going to start actually checking the photo on the back of the card to make sure it looks like you. Corporate may tell the stores to start doing that, but they’re not going to do that.
The one thing the Costcos here in New Jersey did recently start doing was asking for membership cards at the gas pumps. Remember, you can’t pump your own gas here, so they don’t have the pumps set up to require scanning your membership card first, because it’s employees working the pumps and that would slow them down. So everyone was getting gas at Costco, whether they were members or not. Last year, they started making you show your membership card. That I can understand and am ok with.
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When they checked mine last week they did match the image.
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I have to have my card scanned (I use the Costco app which has a QR code) when I Check Out at the Self Checkout. That’s the first thing it asks you to do. I also have to scan the card (or app) if I want the $1.50 Hot Dog/Drink. It has been like this for a long time, at least the one I shop at.
I have not tried to see if someone else could use the Costco app with MY account though.
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Gotta squeeze that blood from the rock 
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Well I’ve never had mine checked. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. I still doubt they’ll keep this up even if they’ve been ordered to do it now. Hopefully I won’t have a problem. I am the primary account holder, but my mother is on the account with her own card. But she also got the Costco credit card last year (I think it’s technically a Capital One card) and you can use that as your membership card. I always use that when I go to Costco, but that’s got her picture on it, not mine. I will report back tomorrow.
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Nothing new during today’s Costco run. Same routine of flashing the card at the entrance and the cashier scanning the card at checkout. Still don’t have to scan the card at the “cafe” ordering kiosk.
Tangentially, I refuse to use Costco’s self-checkout because it is absolutely terrible. No handheld barcode scanners (like Home Depot and even Walmart have), so I’m wrestling the VW Bug-sized pack of paper towels across the tiny scanning window. Have to place everything in the “bagging area”, then load it all back in your cart. Have to wait for the one overworked employee for age verification if I buy wine. No thanks, I’ll stand in line behind the guy with a flatbed of instant pho.
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Sounds like the self check out is implemented in different ways across the company. At my local one you do not get to scan your items, they have someone there to do it for you (yes these are the “self-checkout” terminals not the regular check out.) I don’t know if we are not trusted to not cheat or be competent to use them.
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The axiom “Got to pay to play” seems more apt.
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Our our Costcos, we scan our own items at the self-check-outs, except for bulky items. Are you in a crime-ridden area, by chance?
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Can this actually be compared to Netflix crackdown though? From what I’ve understood, Netflix initially allowed sharing amongst family or household, leaving it ambiguous or discretionary as to how you defined it, before then restricting it with a change of terms of service. Has Costco ever explicitly said you could share memberships with someone who doesn’t have their own card? (I would assume there might be a family plan or something where you can get multiple cards in different names, and that would be unaffected.)
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I was stopped last week and I flashed the front of the card and the employee made me turn it over. I wondered why- it didn’t occur to me that he was supposed to be checking that the image on the card matched my face.
The idea that they’re matching a picture (taken with a Logitech web cam if memory serves) printed on a plastic card that’s been in and out of my wallet so much over the last seven and half years that image is rubbed off of the card in spots is hilarious.
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As someone who can’t stand self checkout, seems like an argument to get rid of self checkout.
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Pro tip: Costco allows two membership cards per household. I have for decades shared my membership with a friend in another state. I had to temporarily change my address with Costco to the friend’s address to get them to issue them a card, but then I changed it back and both cards continue working. Together we spend enough to make executive membership pay for itself.
If they really do a netflix style geofence crackdown, I’ll be in trouble because cards are only supposed to be shared by people living in a household at the same address.
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