Costco is tightening the way shoppers get in and out of its warehouses, and the change is more than a small tweak at the door. The retailer is leaning hard into membership verification and receipt checks as it tries to clamp down on theft and card sharing while keeping its low-price model intact. For regulars who treat a Costco run like a weekly ritual, that means new routines at the entrance and a more structured exit on the way back to the parking lot.
The core idea is simple: if the store is members only, then every person walking through the doors should be a paying member or a legitimate guest, and every cart rolling out should match what was paid for. The details of how Costco plans to enforce that, and how shoppers are reacting, are where the story really starts to heat up.
What Costco’s membership rules already require
Even before any new gadgets show up at the entrance, Costco already has a strict rulebook about who can shop and how. The company spells out that a Membership fee covers one 12 month period for the Primary Cardholder, and that the card is issued to a specific person, not a household free-for-all. The official terms explain that only the Primary Cardholder and designated household members are allowed to use that account, and that the person whose name is on the card is the one responsible for the membership and any purchases tied to it, which is why employees are trained to check that the photo and name match the person at the door in the first place according to the warehouse chain’s own member conditions.
Those same rules also clarify how cards can and cannot be shared. A membership belongs to the person whose name and photo appear on it, and while that person can bring guests, only the member is supposed to pay at checkout, which is why Costco stresses that the card itself, not copies or screenshots, is the valid proof of membership as laid out in the detailed Membership Cards and section. That framework has always given Costco the right to stop someone at the door and ask for a card, but the retailer is now signaling that it plans to move from occasional spot checks to a system where every single entry is verified.
The new scan-at-the-door rule
The biggest visible change for shoppers is the shift to mandatory membership scanning at the entrance. Earlier this year, Costco confirmed that it has implemented tighter entrance procedures that require shoppers to scan their membership cards before they even reach the aisles, a move explicitly aimed at fighting theft and clamping down on unauthorized use of cards according to reporting on how Costco has implemented. Instead of a greeter glancing at a card, shoppers are met with a device that reads the barcode or digital card, which gives the company a clean yes or no on whether that person is actually a member.
Costco has been clear that this is not a short term pilot but part of a broader digital overhaul of how people enter and check out. In a message amplified on social media, Costco CEO Ron Vachris indicated that membership scanning devices will be used at the entrance over the coming months so that customers will soon be required to present a scannable card or app every time they walk in, framing it as a way to modernize the process of entering and checking out rather than just a crackdown, according to a statement shared through Costco Will Require. The shift pulls the long standing rulebook into the digital age and leaves less room for the casual “I forgot my card, can I just slip in” interaction that many shoppers had grown used to.
Why Costco is tightening the doors and exits
Behind the stricter entrance checks is a simple math problem for the retailer. Membership fees and high volume sales let Costco keep margins thin, but that model only works if the people filling carts are actually paying members and if products are not walking out unpaid. Reports on the new procedures describe how Costco has implemented tighter entrance and exit rules specifically to fight theft, including more consistent membership verification at the front and firmer receipt checks at the back, so that every cart leaving the building has been matched to a transaction as described in coverage of how Costco confirms new.
The company is also dealing with a broader pattern of policy tightening across the business, from membership sharing to returns. Separate reporting on a return policy crackdown describes how Costco has recently moved to stricter enforcement on categories like Custom Installations and Items that are manufactured to custom specifications, and explains that part of the goal is to make it faster for employees to verify that a purchase is legitimate and falls within the rules, which mirrors the logic behind entrance scanners and exit receipt checks according to analysis of the Recent Operation. Taken together, Costco is signaling that it would rather risk a little friction at the door and the returns desk than quietly absorb losses that could eventually push up prices.
Shoppers are split on the stricter checks
Not every shopper is thrilled to be greeted by a scanner instead of a quick nod from the door attendant. Coverage of the new entry rule describes how Costco has implemented a stricter policy requiring shoppers to scan their membership cards at the entrance, with some members praising the change as a fair way to protect what they pay for and others calling it inconvenient or unfriendly, capturing how Costco’s new entry. For members who always keep their card handy, the process feels like a minor adjustment, but for families juggling kids, phones, and a shopping list in the parking lot, one more step at the door can feel like a hassle.
There is also a competitive angle in the way shoppers are framing the change. Some customers who are frustrated with the stricter checks are quick to point out that big box competitors like Walmart and Target let anyone walk in without showing anything at the door, a contrast that has been highlighted in coverage of how competitors like Walmart operate. Meanwhile, members who see the warehouse model as a club they buy into are more likely to shrug and argue that if the card is what keeps prices down, scanning it at the door is a fair trade.
How the digital overhaul could change a Costco run
What is happening at the entrance is only one piece of a larger tech push inside the warehouses. The same statement from Costco CEO Ron Vachris that talked about membership cards being scanned at the entrance over the coming months also framed the change as part of a major digital overhaul of the way people shop the warehouse, hinting at a future where the process of entering and checking out is more tightly linked through technology, as described in the message about how Costco CEO Ron framed the plan. That could eventually mean smoother links between the digital membership card in a phone app, self checkout lanes, and whatever system employees use at the exit to scan and verify receipts.
More from Vinyl and Velvet:
Leave a Reply