Costco, the membership-only warehouse chain, recently began enforcing stricter membership policies. Traditionally, member cards were checked by cashiers during checkout. However, CBS reports that the company has now introduced a new system, “installing membership scanners at the entrances of all locations to prevent non-members from shopping.”
According to CBS, instead of flashing their cards at employees, members will be required to scan them as they enter the store.
Not working as intended?
But TikToker Kendra argues that the new system isn’t working as intended.
In her viral video, she exclaims, “Costco, y’all gonna need to do better than this!”
As she says this, she pans the camera to show a long line of customers waiting to scan their cards at the entrance.
“You want people to scan to get into your buildings, but this is what you have out here?” she asks, showing viewers the chaos. “Complete mess over here at this Costco with people trying to scan in to get inside your facility.”
“You need to do better than this. Do better than this!” she urges.
Kendra’s video has 98,000 views and hundreds of comments, sparking much discussion.
Public reaction: mixed reviews
Some viewers expressed frustration with the new system and agreed with Kendra.
“I agree, it’s pretty ridiculous to do all this when they verify your membership at the register,” one commenter wrote.
Another added, “Why show a membership card? You can’t check out without one. Smh.”
@dacoolestchyck Costco now requires you to scan your membership when you come in the door. This was the circus today #over40club #explore #fyp #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #over50club #roadto10k #explorepage #fypシ゚viral #costco ♬ original sound – Kendra
Sam’s Club instead?
Some even suggested a preference for Sam’s Club, Costco’s competitor in the membership-only warehouse space.
“Costco is 5 minutes away from my house, and Sam’s is 20 minutes. I’d rather go to Sam’s because of this BS,” a viewer shared.
“I love Sam’s Club. Scan & Go or curbside pickup. Costco is way behind the times,” another commented.
“Sams Club. No scan. Scan and Go, and they have a scanner that checks your cart to make sure everything’s in there. Costco is behind,” another viewer argued.
“I have both…I barely go to Costco! They’re gonna lose members with this,” one viewer wrote.
Kendra responded, “I said the same thing. Hopefully, they get it together.”
In defense of Costco
However, some devoted Costco customers disagreed with Kendra’s frustrations, suggesting that their local Costco stores didn’t experience the same issues.
“Costco is the best! People just need to have their Costco card ready and know how to scan it. It’s not Costco’s fault,” one viewer commented.
Kendra replied, “That’s fair, but it’s still a mess when it’s not working properly.”
“Not sure what the problem is. We just scan and go… never have a problem,” another commenter wrote.
Kendra replied, “Only one scanner was working when I went.”
“My Costco has scanners, and it’s never like this. Most people just don’t have their card or phone ready, which is why it gets messy,” another viewer explained.
“We had no problem in Northern California yesterday. Held the card up to the reader, it beeped, and we walked in,” a viewer from the West Coast shared. Kendra responded, “Some days are like that! This just wasn’t one of those days.”
In other Costco membership-crackdown news, a woman was recently turned away from the food court because she didn’t have a membership. Before now, one could probably visit Costco’s food court without a membership. While you’ve always needed a membership to visit the food court, it wasn’t well-enforced. Costco has also been cracking down on membership-sharing, even between members of the same household. In September, the Daily Dot reported that a man was blocked from paying for his wife’s groceries because he wasn’t a member, while she was.
The Daily Dot reached out to Kendra via TikTok comment and Costco via email for further comment.
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