A Costco shopper who spent hundreds at the store is calling out a worker after she tried to go through her receipt item-by-item at the store’s exit. The customer, who is a Black woman, says the worker racially profiled her—letting white customers walk out without a problem.
Costco’s receipt-checking
Costco is a membership-based retailer that sells big-box versions of everyday items, from two packs of bread to huge packs of paper towels. It’s convenient and often cheaper for large families and businesses to shop there.
It’s standard procedure at stores like this (BJ’s and Sam’s Club do it, too) to check customer receipts at the exit. In fact, at most of these stores you have to get your receipt marked by a worker at the exit before you can fully leave.
Most of the time, the receipt checker gives what appears to be a cursory glance and lets people go on their way. But this time, a worker came to cause problems.
“Have you ever experienced discrimination at the exit at Costco?” Costco customer Pamela Smith (@blackhomeeducators) asks in a TikTok.
Racial profiling at Costco’s exit
In her trending video, which has more than 75,000 views as of Wednesday morning, Smith films from the Costco parking lot with a shopping cart full of food—about $500 worth of it, to be more exact.
Smith says the worker at the exit seemed to think that because Smith is Black, she couldn’t afford the groceries in her basket and instead cross-checked every item with the receipt to make sure Smith wasn’t stealing.
“I stood in line and watched her let all the white folks go with just a simple one across. But with me … she told me she had to check I had paid for things,” Smith says.
“Costco workers have the power to discriminate and be biased towards certain customers,” she added in the caption.
As already established, this is highly unusual behavior. Costco receipt checkers will, at most, take a few extra seconds to see that your cart and receipt just about match or to verify that you don’t have an unpaid item under the cart.
The manager told Smith that they’re actually not supposed to check every item at checkout. Instead, they’re supposed to check the date on the receipt and make sure nothing was mistakingly scanned twice.
“I just spent $500 in this store,” Smith notes.
The TikToker says she doubts a big corporation like Costco is giving each staff member proper anti-discrimination training before letting them interact with customers on the floor.
A pattern of discrimination
“These are just some of the things you’re going to go through when you live in a place like Montana. But you know, truthfully, I’ve experienced stuff like this even in Florida,” Smith says.
For context, Montana’s population is 83.8% white and .3% Black, while Florida’s is 50.8% white and 14.4% Black, according to 2022 data pulled by KFF.
And this isn’t the first time smith has felt racially profiled while being one of the few Black people in her area. It happened before when she was accused of stealing items at Target from the Black History Month collection. Oh, the irony.
Smith concludes that the purpose of her making the TikTok was to encourage others to call out racist behavior.
“Always call them out. And I called them out today, and I gave them a very good correction and education,” Smith says.
The comments section was mixed, with some people saying that this is normal at their location and others expressing their solidarity with Smith.
“They go through every item in my cart, I was told it was standard practice. The only people that get upset are the ones that their cart is over flowing with items. They have to count every item,” a commenter wrote.
@blackhomeeducators Costco workers have the power to discriminate and be biased towards certain customers. #blacktiktok ♬ original sound – BlackHomeEducators
However, it seems unlikely that workers would feasibly be able to count every item in a cart that’s pretty full.
“Wow! That’s horrible. I’m so sorry that happened to you. Glad u spoke to the manager,” a person said.
“Yes, I have had an experience like this at Costco in GA,” the top comment read.
The Daily Dot reached out to Smith and Costco for comment via email.
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