The new Costco access control system to prevent non-members from entering
The popular discount retailer, which has been trying to crackdown on non-member shoppers using members’ cards has come up with a new prevention system.
Costco is initiating measures to prevent people who have not paid for a membership from taking advantage of the deals and low prices of the retail giant which has stores throughout the United States and around the globe. The company has been making an effort to crackdown on people piggybacking off of paying members. More people have been sharing their membership cards since the pandemic Costco finance chief Richard Galanti told CNN.
The company announced last summer that it would enforce its membership policy more strictly which states that only Costco members can make purchases at the checkout. Paying members can bring two non-members in with them, but the problem has more to do with non-members flashing somelse’s membership card at the door and using a newly formed crack in the company’s system to receive the same benefits and pricing as regular members.
Recently, the retailer introducted self-checkout stations where it was easier to get around having to show ID that matched the membership card. Costco has since deployed employees to validate membership cards with the shopper’s ID at those stations but that apparently hasn’t been enough.
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Costco’s measure to avoid purchases without membership
It’s reported that a Costco near the company’s headquarters in Washington is now checking that IDs match membership cards at the entrance and there is speculation that the company is even going a step further. The Hill reports that a Reddit user who visited Issaquah store notice that there were two scanners at the entrance. One to check the membership card and another that showed the person’s face for another employee to check.
Some customers have expressed their grievances with the new policy of checking ID twice, not only at the checkout but also at the door just to walk in, calling it “annoying” and “another bottleneck.” Other Reddit users who are Costco members claim that such a system has already been in place for months in the UK and in Australia.