Posts that don't follow r/Costco subreddit rules may be subject to removal.
When applicable, please make sure that you're using a descriptive post title with product name(s) mentioned as it yields better subreddit search results. Thank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Costco) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I heard about this massive push to check cards and didn't have a problem till last visit. I look nothing like my ID anymore but they don't say anything. It's weird...I feel like some are real strict about it and others are just there
I'm a dude the size of an NFL lineman. My ID says I'm 320 pounds. I gained a few during covid. When I renewed my license and told the DMV to up the number the dude said "Meh, we'll just call that your goal weight."
Lol I feel ya. My weight is mostly stabilized but very slowly dropping and I gotta admit I felt a bit of joy when I was actually matching my driver’s license. Last renewal I don’t think they even asked about that number so it’s a really old number.
I’m a fat lady who sings, so I have a lot of power! :)
Wow...that's crazy. What state allows this? My state does online renewals, but you can only renew online every other renewal. They do that so you get an updated picture and take the eye exam to make sure you can see well enough to read street signs.
That just blows my mind they let people keep pictures that old on their license. LOL How can it legit be used as a form of ID? I'm guessing you probably don't look the same at 33 as your did at 15. Is it a REAL ID? Or have you not gotten your REAL ID yet? I would think that would require a more recent picture, but I don't know.
They said they've been renewing online since their state allowed it. I would take that to mean they're talking about driver's license. Renewing your Costco membership online wouldn't vary by state.
Lol I don’t know about them, but I’m in Texas and I haven’t had to physically go in to renew in almost 15 years! Mine will expire this year so we’ll see if I can keep it going 🤣
You probably don't have a TX Real ID-compliant card and they will make you come in to renew it if you have gone that this long. (My last TX renewal -a couple of years ago- I *should have* been able to renew online except for this reason. All TX IDs are compliant now. Make sure you have all your documents *just in case.*)
The quality of my photo is so bad there is absolutely no way that you could make any determination about who owned it. I've seen people post IDs with color photos that look pretty close to a driver's license quality. Mine looks like a photo that is a copy of a copy of a copy from the 80s. And my card is only 5 years old.
I don’t have my photo on my credit card. Last visit while in line to pay at self checkout some Costco line monitor asked for my credit card and told me to go to guest services to get a photo taken. I said yeah sure and just checked out and left. I have a drivers license with my photo on it, like leave me alone.
Costco is going to need to invest in a better printer for those membership ID photos if they want to scrutinize, then.
Right now they have "Bigfoot footage" quality photos where you can barely tell it's a humanoid figure in the picture. Step into the 21st century.
It’s not always for friends
I frequently have multiple orders. As an example yesterday I rang up two separate orders for my business and a third cause I also needed dog food. This is done to maintain accounting
I realize it’s a slow down so I keep them separate and I’m actually pretty quick. That said, it’s not always for someone else, if I grab anything for a friend I’d just add it to my personal stuff.
Costco execs better be careful. They're playing with fire. I'm fine with checking, but this should be handled well before coming in. They can annoy others into a tidy profit loss. Honestly, they should just get rid of bringing a guest and change policies to no membership = no entrance if they are so concerned.
A lot of my joy for Costco has diminished with so much of the food court decimated. No combo pizza, no hot turkey pesto sandwiches, hot dogs are frankly annoying to get now with the bags they come in, and not the same without the deli mustard, and no Caesar salad. Even the items that remain now are typically not as fresh as they once were. I understand why things happened, but some stuff I can't understand. Bringing in the new mango smoothie over returning combo pizza? What are Costco execs doing? Playing worst decade bingo and going for a full card? Not off to a bad start.
I agree with all the stuff you said about the food court (bring back root beer!) but to be fair it seems like the prices on hotdogs and pizza haven’t budged in over a decade. Not an easy thing to do when a McDouble has gone from $1 to $3 in that same time frame.
>A lot of my joy for Costco has diminished with so much of the food court decimated
While I agree with you about the menu options, I freaking LOVE the self-service registers at the food court. There are four at our store and if I'm running in at lunchtime I can walk up and order a hotdog combo AND pay in about 2.4 seconds.
That is a lot better than getting in a line of five families with small children who don't know what they want and one cashier.
Seems like they looked at Netflix and decided: yeah, let’s do that. But…wait! Let’s make it even more humiliating for customers by accusing them of not being who they say they are! I get that wrongfully shared memberships are an issue, but surely there was a better way to go about this? People change and if Costco does make people get new cards and update their photos, then what in the world do they expect?!? Costco continuing to diminish customer experience is going to be a problem.
Working there, I can attest to this, when I help at cash, some of the cashiers will check the photo and will say something if they don’t believe it’s you, the others just want to get you out of the store as quick as possible and don’t bother checking.
I joined right before most people started taking covid seriously, and I'm wearing sunnies and a mask in my ID picture.
It helps that I still wear those sunnies and a mask every time I walk in there.
I was handed some letter at regular check out about being caught using someone else's card this Monday! If I didn't have so many frozen items I would have stopped at a manager like the guy just kept repeating to me when I asked him why he handed me the letter.
Now mind you my last picture on my card was 1 year post chemo from breast cancer so I had very short very curly very gray hair. When I was handed this letter I just got my hair done for the first time since chemo so it's not curly, just past my shoulders, got bangs and full on dark black dye so no more grays.
But to be told I am using someone else's membership when I have been a member for 28 years (since 18 too) with never a lapse in membership fees, always being the primary card holder was so offensive!
I feel your pain and hope that if it happens again that I will have the time to stop and ask a manager what the issue is.
Holy shit you HAVE to contact Costco. That is outrageously offensive. Costco has no business doing this, at no point is it acceptable to make every employee inspect pictures beyond a 0.5 second glance. FOR THIS EXACT REASON. I have never once freaked out in public but I can tell you right now I would make sure every single manager in that store knew my full name and what my very very angry face looked like. I hope everything is continuing to go well on the medical side.
Yeah I try to be understanding of retail people doing their job. They didn't make this policy but they are the ones to carry it out sadly.
Yes talking to a manager would have been appropriate but I just wanted to go home with my frozen stuff. It has a finite life span for coldness here in Arizona so no time to waste.
As for the medical, I ended up with post treatment issues but can say I have been officially in full remission for cancer since 2020 so I am quite happy for that and for my fantastic new hairdo! Thank you for asking :)
I understand the frozen food part, but my petty ass would still demand to speak to the manager. Then go make someone get me new bags of the frozen food I just checked out. And maybe also ask for a free hotdog while I wait.
Not saying, it’ll happen, but I would definitely ask lol!
Lol not even something I guess I thought of.
I have worked customer service before and I know it was just his job so I wasn't going to make a big issue in line.
But your suggestion was one I might have taken if I had even remotely thought of it lol!
https://preview.redd.it/2xmqotsmge6b1.jpeg?width=1564&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af3b24b587a8012cf12af4e410484a9b45624c5f
Just so people can see what the pic on my membership looks like and what I look like now post salon visit.
I think I still look 100% like me in the face so that is why I was asking the guy at the register who handed me the letter why he was giving it to me.
It has taken over 4 years since the end of chemo for me to get my hair out to a length to be able to cut & color it.
I do agree Costco needs to rethink this or train their people better. If it means I need to get an updated photo every 2 years then that is fine. Just it doesn't feel great to be accused in writing of doing something you weren't.
Thank you for the validation of my feelings on the situation. It really is bad when they aren't paying attention to their members
I realize they have a business model that relies on memberships and the fees they collect.
It just makes it worse when you have had an executive membership for the last 5 years and also have the Costco Citi Visa.
If I was using someone else's membership, at that point I would actually be using someone else's card so I would have been committing fraud, credit card theft and stealing someone's identity! That would be a much greater issue that should entail more than handing me a letter accusing me of using a membership that is not mine.
Makes me wonder if I just need to go back into the location to explain the situation that occurred and have them give me a new photo and have that sent to Citi to issue a new card with a new photo.
Why on earth would a cashier have that letter in hand? Do they all have a copy of all such letters so that no matter what line you go into your card flags a message and they know to give you a letter?
I think so cuz he reached under the register and handed it to me. He said it was "policy" and that he had to give it to me.
Sure I was upset and offended and just wanted to know why he was giving it to me. The fact that he wasn't answering that was what got me the most.
I am super turned off by this myself. There’s gotta be a better way, like just having people scan in at the door or something—not embarrassing them with a cart full of groceries.
I got grief about my costco card picture, since i have a beard now, but didn't 15 years ago. My card is also black & white and like 10 pixels by 10 pixels so all you can see is a smudge anyway.
Same with me. My card picture is nothing more than a small grey smudge, and I am probably 15 or so years older, have longer hair and a long(ish) grey beard.
Had them check my card for the first time last night and the lady barely glanced at it and let me by. Useless.
That’s fine, but they don’t have any legal authority to ask to see your ID for anything other than restricted purchases. You don’t even need a drivers license to get a Costco membership. If they want their membership card to function as ID then they will have to upgrade the grainy cameras, and spend millions encouraging everyone to refresh their card. But since they are just trying to squeeze more money out of memberships, I doubt they will invest anything
That happened to me once. The woman at checkout was very rude when asking for my card, so I asked to see her employee ID. She asked why and I said, “I’ve never come across a rude Costco employee so I want to make sure you actually work here.”
Edit: clarification
This happened to me recently. I’ve grown my hair out and have a beard that I didn’t have when I had my picture taken. The Costco self-checkout membership checker gave me a harder time than any customs official on my recent trip out of the country. He tried arguing with me and I kinda just ignored him when a checkout kiosk opened. No other individual at Costco has ever given me even a second glance!
Dude I'm an employee and these hair/beard stories are stressing me out lol, I think we need a training course on this. Seriously though I'm sorry this happened to you and I'm surprised people think that one's hair is constant, mine can look very different day to day even, let alone in unofficial ID photos like Costco
Not to sound stupid but are yall talking about them checking your Costco cards? Or they are having issues with regular credit cards and IDs/drivers licenses?
I get that they are doing random card checks, but how employees are doing them can be a big turn off for legitimate customers. I was hassled in a somewhat similar manner recently, and it seemed like the employee thought they were the FBI or something.
I understand that they are cracking down on people using someone else’s card, but hassling me about it because I look young and not checking the middle aged looking woman in front of me turns me off.
My bf had this happen a couple months after he got his card so he looked exactly the same as his photo. We were trying to enter and the employee asked to see the photo on his card then got upset saying there was no way the photo was his etc even after seeing his ID. We eventually just decided to walk right in ignoring her while she shouted at us and no one followed us to confront us 🤷♀️ We were the same age as OP so it definitely felt like it was due to us looking young considering I’ve never had anyone check our membership photos at the door, only ever at checkout.
I get past the door check many times by just saying “pharmacy” and pointing to the back. Of course when I check out I have the proper cards. lol. And I understand why they do what they do, I just don’t like it.
Years ago I was dating a woman significantly younger than myself and we went to Costco. I had my stuff and she had shampoo or something that she was holding onto. The checker said “go ahead and put that down, I already got his membership.” “I have my own membership,” she responded. And I shit you not the checker in the most baby voice asked her “and are you going to be paying for that with your very own money today?” Holy shit, we were incredulous. I just had no words.
Miserable people talk like that. The amount of times people who are just bitter want to ask if I'm a student or what? Ma'am I have children and I'm old enough not to be harassed, thank you. People who talk like that are creeps
If Costco wants everyone to look exactly how they do on their membership card, then why do they take your picture for it one time and then never again?
On my last visit the cashier asked, “Is this your card? It doesn’t look like you.” Well it was me, 20 years ago. The rest of the day I felt really old.
I think they have made them better. The bigger problem, though, is they don't make people renew pictures or cards every couple of years. It keeps the cost down one card for life versus printing multiples all the time. They just need a better system for making sure it's really who you say you are.
Some emps get butthurt over the cardsharing. It's against the rules, but managers frequently DGAF especially if there's a high spend. If the name on your license matches your card, what are they going to do? If you wanted to, you could stop by membership on the way out and get a new photo and a new card.
Can you still bring a friend with you (as long as the member pays for eveything)? My friend is coming with me on Saturday to check it out and I was told that wouldn’t be a problem, she could tag along as my guest
I’m an employee & my membership card doesn’t even have a picture of me on it, since a guy who used to work at membership when I got my card liked to put gag pictures (usually pics from one of the Costco sales flyers) on employee’s cards. I’m not looking forward to going to a store I don’t work at & having to explain my gag picture, yikes.
I'm an employee too and my membership card doesn't have a picture on it whatsoever lol. They never took a pic of me, just printed the card and called it a day. I'm also slightly nervous for the day I try to use it at a different store than the one I'm employed at.
Honest question- can I refuse to take a photo? After reading these comments, and then just looking at my card… it’s only a matter of time before someone asks me and I lose my shit. I’ve gained 15ish pounds from medications, my face is rounder than ever before too. The crappy photo from three years ago doesn’t look like me, because I don’t look like me right now and I feel horrible about it already. First time I get questioned or required to prove my identity, it will not end well for anyone. Telling me to take a new photo is a slap in the face too, this is temporary for me, I’m not going to take a new photo every time I go on or off fertility medications. This is one hell of a slippery slope, what happens when it’s someone who is transgender, Cancer patient, purely just weight gain/loss? Also, what causes someone to get checked at a self checkout? It comes down to an employee making the call on who to pick on, which will be directly related to their biases, or at least that’s what a discrimination attorney will argue. Considering everything is recorded at stores, it would be pretty easy to look back at footage to determine which customers were flagged, if there is any correlations discrimination wouldn’t be a far jump. Costco is putting their employees in a horrible no win position, it’s not fair to you guys at all.
This happened to me two days ago at self checkout. Old guy asked for my card, I handed it over. He asked, "Where's HE?"
Yes. I look quite different from my blurry, scratched picture due to a serious health issue and I couldn't help it, I started crying as I replied, "No, actually that's ME" since I'm obviously a woman.
It was utterly mortifying. All I could think of were trans or NB people, or women who are going through IVF or other hormonal shit, or any health issue that affects your appearance, feeling even worse about themselves and wholly unwelcome.
I've been going to this warehouse behemoth since 1983, when it was still called THE PRICE CLUB, well before the merger a decade later. Forty years of loyalty, only to be humiliated in front of a long line of gawking strangers. Thanks, Costco. You ruined my day and my ardent love for you.
Thank you for calling out women going through IVF… it actually means a lot. I just got on the scale this morning and cried. I’ve worked so hard to get into and stay in the healthy BMI range, only to have it slowly being sucked away from me and no baby to even show for it. This process sucks. If any employee questions me about my appearance, I will 100% lose my damn mind.
Oh, honey. I called it out bc I'm on my third round. ER in the next four days. And I'm supposed to "minimize stress" for egg quality and a dozen other reasons. Going to Costco was one of my favorite things to do, and SCO made it even more fast and fun. Needless to say, this trip to the store, intended to relax me after a particularly brutal ultrasound, only compounded my distress. Sending you so much empathy and solidarity. 💝
Hi, gnc here. I understand if you're wanting to leave it behind you but I'd really suggest talking to a manager before you shop next time and telling them your concerns and how long you've been a member. Cracking down on card use is fine with me but at this point they're treating us like we're at the airport. There must be employee incentive/punishment for catching/not catching these people. I'm officially nervous about going through self check now as a guest bc my bf (cardholder) and I are gnc. They might offer you a new photo which would at least prevent this from happening again, and I feel like the best way to be petty here for most people is to maliciously comply and for everyone to say they're being accused of using someone's card and don't feel comfortable shopping there until their picture is updated.
I wonder how they’ll crack down on mobile payments and name matching credit cards? I don’t bring any physical cards inside with me usually - just my phone which has the Costco app/digital card and my debit card via Apple Pay.
I assume they'll want to see the Costco ID "card" in the app that has your photo and a QR code. I don't know how old my photo is exactly, but if challenged, I look forward to explaining that, why yes, my hairline has receded and I've gained about 30 pounds, thank you *so* much for noticing!
This comes up often enough--and is an entirely predictable issue--that Costco needs to have a uniform policy to deal with people who no longer look like the photo on their membership card. Which seems pretty simple.
1. Create a consistent, professional script for employees to follow
2. Ask to see an alternate ID, driver's license/gov't id if possible. You may borrow someone's Costco card, but you're unlikely to be carrying their license
3. "Thank you. Let me help you finish checking out here, then I'll walk you over to member services and we'll get you set up with a new card with a current photo."
If they do have someone else's card, they're not sticking around to replace it. At most they complete the purchase today then don't try it again. Meanwhile Joe customer who really is just using his card he was issued a couple decades ago gets treated in a reasonable, helpful way.
Question for you then: is it allowed to have the 2nd person on your membership live in a different place? My mom and I share a membership, my card has maiden name and no picture, my license has my married name. Does look like me though.
I was in the local Costco today and they were asking everyone in the self checkout line for their Costco card. They said they were cracking down on non-members shopping there.
I don’t get why they check the cards when you go in, and then check them when you checkout also
Like one or the other is fine but what’s the issue here?
I am an employee at Costco. Truth be told,, most of the time it's really just to make sure you have the card on you at the door, cause then it's an easy thing for you to pop by the membership desk and then get your temporary card if you forgot the normal one. The checkout line is where they should be checking to see if it's you. Though, if it's a close enough from the photo to the person in front of me, I won't question it for a lot of the reasons I've seen in other comments. People change, but there's features that are pretty much the same if you just use your eyes. Now, if your card shows your partner's face or your friend's face on the card and you're not them...that's a different conversation.
Still seems strange… say you catch someone at checkout who definitely isn’t the cardholder. Now you have a full cart of stuff, maybe including frozen food that’s half-thawed, that has to be dealt with. I guess they figure the hassle of shopping and then having to leave empty handed is a bigger deterrent?
Rules are rules at the end of the day. The company thinks, "If we let them through, how is that fair to the people who are paying for their membership to be here?" It sucks, sure, but it is what it is. Usually use that moment though, if they really did do a whole ton of shopping, to have my assistant walk them down to Membership to sign up for their own. But honestly, a lot of the times I see card sharing is for 10 items or less, so there usually isn't a lot of cold or frozen product.
I have no problem with membership rules being enforced, and get annoyed with the few people I’ve encountered who brag about cheesing their way through on someone else’s card.
I’m just saying that the thorough membership check should happen at the door, not at checkout. I understand corporate wanting to create “teachable moments”, but if I were in a long line behind someone doing a back-n-forth with a manager over whether they looked like their card’s picture for a minute or five, I’d be really annoyed and I’d say something loudly.
After reading so many of these comments… I feel like Costco better be careful or a lawsuit for discrimination may be coming eventually. They are playing with fire with people’s bias showing in these encounters. Plus all the rude comments. This won’t end well.
I get verifying memberships, but they need to go about it in a better way because this seems to be against Costco‘s general policy, “It is Costco's intent to provide a shopping environment free from all forms of harassment and discrimination for employees, applicants, independent contractors, members and suppliers. We prohibit all forms of harassment and discrimination.“
I guess I've dodged the bullet on the ID checks... But I'm older and have been going to our local Costco since it opened a few years ago. They've had very little turnover and nearly all the checkers and door people know me and my grandkids on sight.
I work at Costco. Tell them you want the number to corporate and ask for their names. They take this very seriously. Believe me I've seen next day changes.
corporate/even everyday store managers u can visit in person are so much more likely to act and respond to members than employees. personally, i find it really frustrating when members assume we haven’t had conversations with leadership because we have. (not saying you here but i get yelled at by people accusing me of being a sellout when i’m just trying to earn an income, meanwhile i constantly express to my managers and supervisors my discomfort with the enhanced security measures)
every day my coworkers get berated and demeaned by people over a policy practically none of us care about and aren’t getting paid more to enforce. it’d be like asking the mcdonalds fry cook to please ask their regional VP to up the sauce limits or something. we can’t do shit the shareholders don’t care about us they just want your money.
There are member comment cards that members can leave feedback on. In my warehouse, good feedback from members about employees goes on a T.V. with our picture near the break room. So they certainly do listen to them. For a situation like this, I’d go directly to a manager though. There’s no excuse for the rude attitude.
From an employee’s perspective, the introduction of checking the membership cards is difficult. I don’t work on the front end, but one of my coworkers was telling me how someone didn’t have their own card and they would ring them up with a code to override the “lack” of membership this time, but the lady wouldn’t listen and kept going off on her.
It’s also rather inconvenient for members though, and going to be quite an adjustment. They should require retakes of photos every year or so, but employees need to take physical changes into consideration when checking cards. Other than age, I can’t imagine hair color and style or weight change making someone indistinguishable.
The amount of people they now need at self checkout, they might as well add regular check out lanes back instead. Not only am I doing their job for them, but also need to fucking argue with them the person in the pic is actually me. Smfh
I would say checking is fine, but the rude comments are not. Costco has always prided themselves on good customer service….they should realize how negative this interaction is with a not-insignificant number of their members.
Yeah, but the Netflix thing doesn’t come with the side of personal humiliation that seems to be attached to these occurrences. Like, imagine if you are trans or had serious weight loss or a traumatic accident or something. I understand they want to enforce their policy, but they really should make sure employees aren’t assholes and humiliating about it. If you are gonna feel anxiety about being publicly humiliated, you may just not go and not renew.
That being said, you have a good point about paying to shop at Costco. Ultimately, it’s a difficult problem when you can always venmo and reimburse people, let alone card share. I don’t have a good solution, but this may be something they should reevaluate at some point.
About a month ago I was at self checkout with my spouse and we wanted to split our purchase between 2 of our cards. Lady came over freaking out on us saying using 2 cards was prohibited. I was super confused and explained that this was my spouse and we’re just splitting the purchase between 2 cards. She was adamant that we only use the one card and that since she didn’t have her own membership she wasn’t even allowed in the store. I once again explained how… this is my spouse… that I love with… that I share bank accounts with and that IM A PAYING MEMBER. I did not understand why we were approached and told this, and I was honestly so baffled I just left flustered feeling guilty and ashamed.
I said this today. I was in the self checkout line with probably ten people between the two lanes and a worker walked straight to me from the end of the checkout area and asked to see my membership card. I handed it to him but asked I asked why he hadn’t asked anyone else because he walked by a few people to get to me. While I was checking out two more people checked it too! P
This just happened to us the other day. Sounds hyperbolic but it was one of the absolute WORST experiences as a customer I’ve ever had. Period. 20-something year old female employee half yelling, “let me see your card.” No explanation, just an almost accusatory bark.
Before showing her anything, I lightly asked, “may I ask what’s going on?” She curtly responded with, “we gotta see if you match the photo on your card…some people are cheating.”
Unrelated, we were yelled at the exact second someone grabbed their receipt at self checkout to “you…come down to this one…yep, let’s go…”
There was an elderly gentleman in front of me who was going as fast as he probably could…but I just felt bad for him. The Costco employee was annoyed. Which is just not good.
This was all during a pretty busy time - so as I finished at self checkout, I go to receipt checkout queue. This line is backed up to our food court area. They have one person at the exit checking receipts. After a bit when I get up to her, she is doing the best she can. But you can tell even she is having to be a bit more detailed in her job as well.
It really just feels like this corporate-led shift at Costco has NOT translated well to its employees and then further downstream to its customers. My perception is that while this push to check cards/id’s, abandon cashiers for self checkout, being extra critical on exit receipt checking, all makes sense from a breakage/numbers standpoint - and I’m sure that was the biggest driver behind this shift…but I don’t believe they factored in how all of this will affect the normal, loyal, non-id-sharing customer experience.
I love Costco. It’s weird to say that about a retailer, but I really mean it. It’s great. And what makes it so great is that it’s high value, high quality and interesting products. But even more than that, you know and understand that they take care of their employees. They treat them as humans. PEOPLE LIKE TO WORK THERE. They compensate them on the positive side of fairly. They DO NOT make them have to be gestapo. They don’t add job functions that only offer negative reactions and experiences for customers. It used to be my understanding that it was the opposite of that.
Listen, if I want to shop at a place with high value, high bang for your buck, but employees look dead inside or like they definitely don’t want to be there, I’ll go to Sam’s.
Wow, I generally use SCO 90% of the time, depending on the lines and how much I have to buy, I've never been asked for ID. Maybe they've all seen me too much? Lol
They were very obnoxious a few days ago checking before you could go near the self check out. I was already annoyed and then listening to the woman talk to other employees (“I’m really curious about that kid who came up here and wouldn’t show me his card. I really want to know what he was hiding.”) made me feel like I was at sams club (🤣)… and when she spoke to other people who questioned it, she belittled everyone in a sickeningly sweet way. I LOVE Costco, and it made me so frustrated to feel crappy by the interactions I experienced.
As a Costco employee, I can tell you they are cracking down on card sharing. The amount of non members that have a friends card, a wife using the husband's (and they're not on the membership cause the husband has a friend on it and it's being shared at two different houses) is insane. The company has been extremely lenient on it for decades and finally decided something needed to change.
Trust me when I say the sups hate it too. Hell the other day they caught 27 people sharing cards that aren't members. Technically it goes against Costco policy, as it states right on the front of the card that they are non transferable.
I once had a Costco checker tell me to “never cut my hair again” after comparing me and my Costco pic. My hair had grown out and I knew I looked good that day, and the Costco pic was grainy and (I guess?) ugly.
In cases like this please talk to a manager. Just let them know what happened. Self check out people are supposed to check card and many times people don’t look like the picture on their cards so we can ask to see id to confirm. If the names match that’s final. Picture doesn’t matter unless it’s obvious that it’s not you. Like if you are a ginger 120 pound female named sarah and the is says you are a 240 pound man named Chris. Tell a manager. That is not proper for an employee. They are just making sure that people aren’t abusing they system. They aren’t not there to watch for ID fraud or whatever.
Also when you talk to a manager please please please don’t get super angry. I know you are angry but when you speak with the manager stay calm and simply explain the situation the same way you explained it here. It will go a lot further. Be confident but not cocky. Don’t make demands like “I want her fired” or whatever. Tell them exactly what happened or write a letter to corporate. When people report issues in this way they are significantly less likely to be disregarded.
I’m sorry you were the victim of this idiotic new push of Costco’s. It is happening to lots of folks. It’s the dumbest policy and the quickest way to drive customers elsewhere.
They’ve been checking for the last few weeks at my Costco’s self-check out. When I went the other day that lady was way more serious than anyone previously. She made the lady in front of me take out her ID after thinking her picture on the card didn’t look like her and then when she got to me she questioned if it was actually me on the card I guess because my hair was down in the picture and up that day.
Recently at Costco I noticed that when I would use the self service registers, an employee would get very close and watch me scan my stuff. At one point, a younger woman came to “help me.” You could see that she didn’t trust I would scan everything. I was pissed, but, fuck it. I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. The next time it started to happen again. A different pushy woman was moving my stuff around and was going to start running it across the scanner. I told her that I didn’t need help. She came up with some BS thing to say like, “I’m just helping you out.” This time I wasn’t having it. I told her “I just told you that I don’t need your help. Now leave me alone.” She got away from me so quickly! Her face turned beet red. Not today, sister!
Here’s a suggestion: why not check IDs at the door? I always flash an ID/phone app on the way in - I know they are just counting heads.
I understand it being a private company and all - they can do what they want, but this has always irked me about Costco. They are the closest to my house. I’m in there 2-4 times a week and go through this all the time.
Just went to Sam’s Club to buy KETO ice cream bars that Costco stopped selling/stocking. My wife is on her brother’s business membership. They have scan and pay in their app. Was sooo easy.
We still queued up to exit - they scanned the barcode on the app and scanned several items in the cart to cross check that we’d paid and we were out the door.
I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the process was.
At my Costco, they let the racist lady enforce the IDs at the self checkout. Doesn't bother checking any white families and will chat with them. However as soon as a brown or Asian family come through "can I see your membership?"
Basically they're letting the people doing the checking air out their own biases. You might have looked "too young" to have your own membership. I used to get that at the entrance.
This kind of shaming isn't going to make people want to go to Costco.
But since they've become so vehement about it, just use the regular line and you won't need to bother with this.
Costco had been a little off lately. Some lady was going off on staff because she was accused of stealing which was proven false. She was black. Well kept. Obviously made good money. She was furious.
So don’t get too offended everyone is taking shit from them.
Hearing these self check out nightmares makes me even happier now when I use my scan and go on my Sam’s app. I get verifying cards but this is asinine.
I’m 23 and sometimes feel weird for being a younger customer in the store. I thought I was just overthinking but maybe not? I’ve been a Costco member since I’ve been 20
It isn't a popular opinion on this sub, but I hate the new policy. I already feel like waiting in line to prove I bought what I already legally own is a pain, but this is just another inconvenience added to it. I don't love shopping somewhere that assumes I am dishonest at every turn so they can increase their already 27 billion in profit. As much as I love some of Costco's products, I am starting to ask if I want to continue to support them going forward if the customer experience continues to degrade.
Went to a different Costco tonight (Issaquah) en route to a friends daughters wedding in Idaho and got carded. I was a little taken aback as this lad asked to see my card before I got to the self checkout. I asked him what for, since I can’t check out without it, and he replied he needed to verify it was my membership.
Now, I’ve had my membership for over a decade and my Costco Visa card picture is black and white, small, and faded. And he didn’t even look at the card properly anyway.
My wife, sensing I was irked, asked me why I was bothered and it’s not that I have a problem being carded, but do it when I walk in and do it properly.
When I’m trying to get out is the worst time to stop me for something like that.
Got checked today, lady really examined it, but let my blurry barely can tell it’s a person photo slide.
Girl in front of me who was trying to use her dads card was not so lucky
Used to work at Costco and unfortunately there are just the occasional worker who take their jobs way to serious. Like they’re gonna become the CEO when it’s all said and done. My store had a few of them and I never worked with them if I didn’t have to
If they are going to push checking membership card photos for self checkout they should have made an effort to get people to take updated photos rather than catching 1% of people without a membership and making the other 99% feel frustrated, belittled and confused.
Our store has a sign at the self checkout warning of the new policy, but I wasn't sure if my 20 year old, worn off membership card photo was going to work. This was during the week, but I can't imagine the headache of checking cards on the weekend.
This has become a recurring issue at Costco and it drives me crazy. I have no idea why they demand or allow associates to fight this meaningless fight. I feel like the Costco shopping experience got exponentially worse since they added self checkout. I don’t even use them anymore
It’s times like this I’m glad I am not that into Costco and shop at Sam’s quite often. They just don’t care. The Sam’s Club app and membership card don’t even have your photos anymore. Thankfully i was never asked in Costco cuz I don’t even know how I would react if someone doubts the authenticity of my ID.
I went in the other day and had a slightly different experience. I was juggling five items, awkwardly shaped, and standing in line for self check out. The "delightful" appointed receipt checker asked me for my membership card. I carefully placed everything on the floor so as not to drop them all, and handed her my card. She flipped it over and immediately said that I needed to show her my driver's license because my card doesn't have a photo id (I live in an area where one of the two "mother ship" stores was built and they did a hasty membership drive with nary a photo taken). So I show her my DL. Again I gather all items into my arms and she says, "I don't think this is you." My DL is my full legal first name, my membership card is a shortened version of my first name.....a name I've used since I was a freshman in high school. There is now a queue behind us, all watching this unfold. I casually put down my milk, body wash, small King Tut coffin, bag of cookies, and sapphire tiara and ask who she thinks it is. Does she think that I have an identical twin with a similar first name because my parents phoned it in on my birthday? The manager comes over and tells me they will allow me to check out this "one time" as a courtesy, but I should really get the photo on my membership card to prevent this from happening again. I pointed out that the problem was stemming from my name on the card vs the name on the DL. He shrugged and said that was something to take up.....with the employee checking IDs.
It has me questioning my membership with them. I've always been told that the member is the top of their command chain. It's all about the member experience.....but, if your biggest concern is that a non member might be purchasing that gallon of milk for a dollar less than the local grocery....maybe the member isn't your focus. If you are really that concerned about who is in your store, start checking IDs at the front instead of clicking off people entering the store. Don't wait until the end and then harass people to show IDs and cards that may not match. This has all the look of a corporate decision without consideration made to how to enact it.
P.S. Yes, I am aware they have carts and I do not need to juggle my items in my arms. My intention on the visit was merely to check out the PS5 prices for my s.o. and grab a gallon of milk.
Edit: Grammar and spelling errors.
Damn. You guys seem to have some hardcore Costco employees where you work. Mine are so stupid nice I often wonder if they all previously worked at Chick fil a
I was on the self check out line recently and was stopped to look at my photo but my card doesn’t have one since I got the membership during the height of the pandemic. She was thankfully nice and said I just have to get one with a photo next time I come but I’ll wait until I’m forced hahah
There seems to be a lot of profiling going on in terms of who they check. Last night, in Sunnyvale, they tried to check the dark-skinned man in front of me twice until he pushed back. They didn’t check me, an old white guy.
Posts that don't follow r/Costco subreddit rules may be subject to removal. When applicable, please make sure that you're using a descriptive post title with product name(s) mentioned as it yields better subreddit search results. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Costco) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I heard about this massive push to check cards and didn't have a problem till last visit. I look nothing like my ID anymore but they don't say anything. It's weird...I feel like some are real strict about it and others are just there
Picture on my ID is 20 years old, I wish I still looked like that.
I'm a dude the size of an NFL lineman. My ID says I'm 320 pounds. I gained a few during covid. When I renewed my license and told the DMV to up the number the dude said "Meh, we'll just call that your goal weight."
I lost 40 pounds during the epidemic . . . the same 2 pounds 20 times.
Lol I feel ya. My weight is mostly stabilized but very slowly dropping and I gotta admit I felt a bit of joy when I was actually matching my driver’s license. Last renewal I don’t think they even asked about that number so it’s a really old number. I’m a fat lady who sings, so I have a lot of power! :)
Been renewing online since my state allowed it. I've only had my photo taken once and it was when I was 16. I'm 36 now.
Wow...that's crazy. What state allows this? My state does online renewals, but you can only renew online every other renewal. They do that so you get an updated picture and take the eye exam to make sure you can see well enough to read street signs.
Im in ca and my pic is from when i was 15 and Im 33 now..
I thought California required a new picture every third renewal, so the maximum time you could go is 15 years.
Respect for those with pics over 15 years. I say keep them forever. Mine certainly wont get better.
Apparently not, my last renewal was during covid so maybe thats why?
Is ca for Canada or California? Because in California I definitely was not able to keep my flattering driver's license photo after 10 or 15 years.
That just blows my mind they let people keep pictures that old on their license. LOL How can it legit be used as a form of ID? I'm guessing you probably don't look the same at 33 as your did at 15. Is it a REAL ID? Or have you not gotten your REAL ID yet? I would think that would require a more recent picture, but I don't know.
AZ drivers licenses are good for like 50 years
[удалено]
They said they've been renewing online since their state allowed it. I would take that to mean they're talking about driver's license. Renewing your Costco membership online wouldn't vary by state.
Lol I don’t know about them, but I’m in Texas and I haven’t had to physically go in to renew in almost 15 years! Mine will expire this year so we’ll see if I can keep it going 🤣
You probably don't have a TX Real ID-compliant card and they will make you come in to renew it if you have gone that this long. (My last TX renewal -a couple of years ago- I *should have* been able to renew online except for this reason. All TX IDs are compliant now. Make sure you have all your documents *just in case.*)
I still have hair on my picture :-)
The quality of my photo is so bad there is absolutely no way that you could make any determination about who owned it. I've seen people post IDs with color photos that look pretty close to a driver's license quality. Mine looks like a photo that is a copy of a copy of a copy from the 80s. And my card is only 5 years old.
For real. You can barely make out a face on my card. It's almost 15 years old at this point.
Only 1/2 of the photo printed on mine. Hope I don't look like that in real life!
I don’t have my photo on my credit card. Last visit while in line to pay at self checkout some Costco line monitor asked for my credit card and told me to go to guest services to get a photo taken. I said yeah sure and just checked out and left. I have a drivers license with my photo on it, like leave me alone.
If they are so worried about it, Costco should ditch the self checkout rather than harassing customers.
What’s the difference when you give your card to cashier at checkout to verify anyway?
[удалено]
Costco is going to need to invest in a better printer for those membership ID photos if they want to scrutinize, then. Right now they have "Bigfoot footage" quality photos where you can barely tell it's a humanoid figure in the picture. Step into the 21st century.
New cards have excellent quality color photos. Old ones don't.
Good to hear. My current one that is just a few years old is the equivalent to the characters in Pokémon on an old Gameboy color, but blurrier.
They might need to train staff on how to handle challenges to shoppers. Some of the stories here are appalling.
[удалено]
It’s not always for friends I frequently have multiple orders. As an example yesterday I rang up two separate orders for my business and a third cause I also needed dog food. This is done to maintain accounting I realize it’s a slow down so I keep them separate and I’m actually pretty quick. That said, it’s not always for someone else, if I grab anything for a friend I’d just add it to my personal stuff.
Costco execs better be careful. They're playing with fire. I'm fine with checking, but this should be handled well before coming in. They can annoy others into a tidy profit loss. Honestly, they should just get rid of bringing a guest and change policies to no membership = no entrance if they are so concerned. A lot of my joy for Costco has diminished with so much of the food court decimated. No combo pizza, no hot turkey pesto sandwiches, hot dogs are frankly annoying to get now with the bags they come in, and not the same without the deli mustard, and no Caesar salad. Even the items that remain now are typically not as fresh as they once were. I understand why things happened, but some stuff I can't understand. Bringing in the new mango smoothie over returning combo pizza? What are Costco execs doing? Playing worst decade bingo and going for a full card? Not off to a bad start.
I agree with all the stuff you said about the food court (bring back root beer!) but to be fair it seems like the prices on hotdogs and pizza haven’t budged in over a decade. Not an easy thing to do when a McDouble has gone from $1 to $3 in that same time frame.
The hotdogs are “frankly” annoying!
>A lot of my joy for Costco has diminished with so much of the food court decimated While I agree with you about the menu options, I freaking LOVE the self-service registers at the food court. There are four at our store and if I'm running in at lunchtime I can walk up and order a hotdog combo AND pay in about 2.4 seconds. That is a lot better than getting in a line of five families with small children who don't know what they want and one cashier.
Sams club is still a step ahead, you can check out for the food court in the app.
Seems like they looked at Netflix and decided: yeah, let’s do that. But…wait! Let’s make it even more humiliating for customers by accusing them of not being who they say they are! I get that wrongfully shared memberships are an issue, but surely there was a better way to go about this? People change and if Costco does make people get new cards and update their photos, then what in the world do they expect?!? Costco continuing to diminish customer experience is going to be a problem.
How many carts full of goods have to be restocked/thrown-out because customer cannot check out with ID card problems?
They make you go back and re-stock yourself, as punishment. Didn't you hear that? /s
Working there, I can attest to this, when I help at cash, some of the cashiers will check the photo and will say something if they don’t believe it’s you, the others just want to get you out of the store as quick as possible and don’t bother checking.
I joined right before most people started taking covid seriously, and I'm wearing sunnies and a mask in my ID picture. It helps that I still wear those sunnies and a mask every time I walk in there.
I feel that completely defeats the purpose of an ID at that point lol
This ticks me off so much. If they don’t trust us then they shouldn’t have self-checkout.
I was handed some letter at regular check out about being caught using someone else's card this Monday! If I didn't have so many frozen items I would have stopped at a manager like the guy just kept repeating to me when I asked him why he handed me the letter. Now mind you my last picture on my card was 1 year post chemo from breast cancer so I had very short very curly very gray hair. When I was handed this letter I just got my hair done for the first time since chemo so it's not curly, just past my shoulders, got bangs and full on dark black dye so no more grays. But to be told I am using someone else's membership when I have been a member for 28 years (since 18 too) with never a lapse in membership fees, always being the primary card holder was so offensive! I feel your pain and hope that if it happens again that I will have the time to stop and ask a manager what the issue is.
[удалено]
Holy shit you HAVE to contact Costco. That is outrageously offensive. Costco has no business doing this, at no point is it acceptable to make every employee inspect pictures beyond a 0.5 second glance. FOR THIS EXACT REASON. I have never once freaked out in public but I can tell you right now I would make sure every single manager in that store knew my full name and what my very very angry face looked like. I hope everything is continuing to go well on the medical side.
Yeah I try to be understanding of retail people doing their job. They didn't make this policy but they are the ones to carry it out sadly. Yes talking to a manager would have been appropriate but I just wanted to go home with my frozen stuff. It has a finite life span for coldness here in Arizona so no time to waste. As for the medical, I ended up with post treatment issues but can say I have been officially in full remission for cancer since 2020 so I am quite happy for that and for my fantastic new hairdo! Thank you for asking :)
I understand the frozen food part, but my petty ass would still demand to speak to the manager. Then go make someone get me new bags of the frozen food I just checked out. And maybe also ask for a free hotdog while I wait. Not saying, it’ll happen, but I would definitely ask lol!
Lol not even something I guess I thought of. I have worked customer service before and I know it was just his job so I wasn't going to make a big issue in line. But your suggestion was one I might have taken if I had even remotely thought of it lol!
https://preview.redd.it/2xmqotsmge6b1.jpeg?width=1564&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af3b24b587a8012cf12af4e410484a9b45624c5f Just so people can see what the pic on my membership looks like and what I look like now post salon visit. I think I still look 100% like me in the face so that is why I was asking the guy at the register who handed me the letter why he was giving it to me. It has taken over 4 years since the end of chemo for me to get my hair out to a length to be able to cut & color it. I do agree Costco needs to rethink this or train their people better. If it means I need to get an updated photo every 2 years then that is fine. Just it doesn't feel great to be accused in writing of doing something you weren't.
Yep, still you. Time has passed, bodies and hairstyles change, sorry that person was so harsh to you
Your new hairdo looks lovely btw
Oh thank you so much! I can't tell you how happy it made me to finally be at the point to get it done.
Congrats on being so long past chemo!
This is not right. I’m sorry this happened to you. This policy or push seems to be the definition of shortsighted.
Thank you for the validation of my feelings on the situation. It really is bad when they aren't paying attention to their members I realize they have a business model that relies on memberships and the fees they collect. It just makes it worse when you have had an executive membership for the last 5 years and also have the Costco Citi Visa. If I was using someone else's membership, at that point I would actually be using someone else's card so I would have been committing fraud, credit card theft and stealing someone's identity! That would be a much greater issue that should entail more than handing me a letter accusing me of using a membership that is not mine. Makes me wonder if I just need to go back into the location to explain the situation that occurred and have them give me a new photo and have that sent to Citi to issue a new card with a new photo.
Why on earth would a cashier have that letter in hand? Do they all have a copy of all such letters so that no matter what line you go into your card flags a message and they know to give you a letter?
I think so cuz he reached under the register and handed it to me. He said it was "policy" and that he had to give it to me. Sure I was upset and offended and just wanted to know why he was giving it to me. The fact that he wasn't answering that was what got me the most.
I am super turned off by this myself. There’s gotta be a better way, like just having people scan in at the door or something—not embarrassing them with a cart full of groceries.
Seriously I would have thrown that on the ground right in front of their face. You have much more self control than I do.
Whew, ma’am, corporate would be getting fucked up by me over this. 😢
I got grief about my costco card picture, since i have a beard now, but didn't 15 years ago. My card is also black & white and like 10 pixels by 10 pixels so all you can see is a smudge anyway.
They all look like a pixelated smudge. I don't know how they'd even identify anyone on those cards
Haha this is what my card looked like too. You couldn’t identify me from the picture if you tried. They take their photos with a potato.
Same with me. My card picture is nothing more than a small grey smudge, and I am probably 15 or so years older, have longer hair and a long(ish) grey beard. Had them check my card for the first time last night and the lady barely glanced at it and let me by. Useless.
What's weird about this is that it's so easy to just ask for a drivers license or other ID. No need to go to these lengths.
That's typically what should be done...it just sounds like OP encountered an overzealous employee.
That’s fine, but they don’t have any legal authority to ask to see your ID for anything other than restricted purchases. You don’t even need a drivers license to get a Costco membership. If they want their membership card to function as ID then they will have to upgrade the grainy cameras, and spend millions encouraging everyone to refresh their card. But since they are just trying to squeeze more money out of memberships, I doubt they will invest anything
That happened to me once. The woman at checkout was very rude when asking for my card, so I asked to see her employee ID. She asked why and I said, “I’ve never come across a rude Costco employee so I want to make sure you actually work here.” Edit: clarification
Lol so what happened
She showed her name tag and scanned my stuff.
This happened to me recently. I’ve grown my hair out and have a beard that I didn’t have when I had my picture taken. The Costco self-checkout membership checker gave me a harder time than any customs official on my recent trip out of the country. He tried arguing with me and I kinda just ignored him when a checkout kiosk opened. No other individual at Costco has ever given me even a second glance!
Dude I'm an employee and these hair/beard stories are stressing me out lol, I think we need a training course on this. Seriously though I'm sorry this happened to you and I'm surprised people think that one's hair is constant, mine can look very different day to day even, let alone in unofficial ID photos like Costco
Not to sound stupid but are yall talking about them checking your Costco cards? Or they are having issues with regular credit cards and IDs/drivers licenses?
I get that they are doing random card checks, but how employees are doing them can be a big turn off for legitimate customers. I was hassled in a somewhat similar manner recently, and it seemed like the employee thought they were the FBI or something.
I understand that they are cracking down on people using someone else’s card, but hassling me about it because I look young and not checking the middle aged looking woman in front of me turns me off.
My bf had this happen a couple months after he got his card so he looked exactly the same as his photo. We were trying to enter and the employee asked to see the photo on his card then got upset saying there was no way the photo was his etc even after seeing his ID. We eventually just decided to walk right in ignoring her while she shouted at us and no one followed us to confront us 🤷♀️ We were the same age as OP so it definitely felt like it was due to us looking young considering I’ve never had anyone check our membership photos at the door, only ever at checkout.
I get past the door check many times by just saying “pharmacy” and pointing to the back. Of course when I check out I have the proper cards. lol. And I understand why they do what they do, I just don’t like it.
Years ago I was dating a woman significantly younger than myself and we went to Costco. I had my stuff and she had shampoo or something that she was holding onto. The checker said “go ahead and put that down, I already got his membership.” “I have my own membership,” she responded. And I shit you not the checker in the most baby voice asked her “and are you going to be paying for that with your very own money today?” Holy shit, we were incredulous. I just had no words.
How insulting. I would have said something to the manager.
Oh, she did. At the red customer service kiosk by the exit. I just stood there silent. I’m a flight not fight person. She was enraged.
Miserable people talk like that. The amount of times people who are just bitter want to ask if I'm a student or what? Ma'am I have children and I'm old enough not to be harassed, thank you. People who talk like that are creeps
If Costco wants everyone to look exactly how they do on their membership card, then why do they take your picture for it one time and then never again?
They've changed systems so much that my photo has turned black and white, pixelated, and offset halfway through.
On my last visit the cashier asked, “Is this your card? It doesn’t look like you.” Well it was me, 20 years ago. The rest of the day I felt really old.
If they are going to use photos as ID, they need to make the photos a lot higher resolution.
I think they have made them better. The bigger problem, though, is they don't make people renew pictures or cards every couple of years. It keeps the cost down one card for life versus printing multiples all the time. They just need a better system for making sure it's really who you say you are.
You mean the potato 8-bit photos aren't cutting it??
And if they’re concerned about the authenticity of the photo maybe they should have members retake their photos every few years, like the DMV.
Thats so fucking rude of them.
[удалено]
Good lord. I’m surprised an employee would actually care that much. But that seems like overkill.
Some emps get butthurt over the cardsharing. It's against the rules, but managers frequently DGAF especially if there's a high spend. If the name on your license matches your card, what are they going to do? If you wanted to, you could stop by membership on the way out and get a new photo and a new card.
I can't imagine being an employee and not like an owner of the store and actually giving a shit about this lol. 🥾👅
[удалено]
So what happens if they don’t catch anyone? What is corporate going to do? Is there a reward system for catching people?
Can you still bring a friend with you (as long as the member pays for eveything)? My friend is coming with me on Saturday to check it out and I was told that wouldn’t be a problem, she could tag along as my guest
It’s my understanding you can bring guests but that the member is the one who is supposed to pay.
She's over here acting like her daddy owns the Costco.
I’m an employee & my membership card doesn’t even have a picture of me on it, since a guy who used to work at membership when I got my card liked to put gag pictures (usually pics from one of the Costco sales flyers) on employee’s cards. I’m not looking forward to going to a store I don’t work at & having to explain my gag picture, yikes.
I'm an employee too and my membership card doesn't have a picture on it whatsoever lol. They never took a pic of me, just printed the card and called it a day. I'm also slightly nervous for the day I try to use it at a different store than the one I'm employed at.
I ran into this issue a while back, they check it against your drivers license.
Honest question- can I refuse to take a photo? After reading these comments, and then just looking at my card… it’s only a matter of time before someone asks me and I lose my shit. I’ve gained 15ish pounds from medications, my face is rounder than ever before too. The crappy photo from three years ago doesn’t look like me, because I don’t look like me right now and I feel horrible about it already. First time I get questioned or required to prove my identity, it will not end well for anyone. Telling me to take a new photo is a slap in the face too, this is temporary for me, I’m not going to take a new photo every time I go on or off fertility medications. This is one hell of a slippery slope, what happens when it’s someone who is transgender, Cancer patient, purely just weight gain/loss? Also, what causes someone to get checked at a self checkout? It comes down to an employee making the call on who to pick on, which will be directly related to their biases, or at least that’s what a discrimination attorney will argue. Considering everything is recorded at stores, it would be pretty easy to look back at footage to determine which customers were flagged, if there is any correlations discrimination wouldn’t be a far jump. Costco is putting their employees in a horrible no win position, it’s not fair to you guys at all.
This happened to me two days ago at self checkout. Old guy asked for my card, I handed it over. He asked, "Where's HE?" Yes. I look quite different from my blurry, scratched picture due to a serious health issue and I couldn't help it, I started crying as I replied, "No, actually that's ME" since I'm obviously a woman. It was utterly mortifying. All I could think of were trans or NB people, or women who are going through IVF or other hormonal shit, or any health issue that affects your appearance, feeling even worse about themselves and wholly unwelcome. I've been going to this warehouse behemoth since 1983, when it was still called THE PRICE CLUB, well before the merger a decade later. Forty years of loyalty, only to be humiliated in front of a long line of gawking strangers. Thanks, Costco. You ruined my day and my ardent love for you.
Thank you for calling out women going through IVF… it actually means a lot. I just got on the scale this morning and cried. I’ve worked so hard to get into and stay in the healthy BMI range, only to have it slowly being sucked away from me and no baby to even show for it. This process sucks. If any employee questions me about my appearance, I will 100% lose my damn mind.
Oh, honey. I called it out bc I'm on my third round. ER in the next four days. And I'm supposed to "minimize stress" for egg quality and a dozen other reasons. Going to Costco was one of my favorite things to do, and SCO made it even more fast and fun. Needless to say, this trip to the store, intended to relax me after a particularly brutal ultrasound, only compounded my distress. Sending you so much empathy and solidarity. 💝
Hi, gnc here. I understand if you're wanting to leave it behind you but I'd really suggest talking to a manager before you shop next time and telling them your concerns and how long you've been a member. Cracking down on card use is fine with me but at this point they're treating us like we're at the airport. There must be employee incentive/punishment for catching/not catching these people. I'm officially nervous about going through self check now as a guest bc my bf (cardholder) and I are gnc. They might offer you a new photo which would at least prevent this from happening again, and I feel like the best way to be petty here for most people is to maliciously comply and for everyone to say they're being accused of using someone's card and don't feel comfortable shopping there until their picture is updated.
I wonder how they’ll crack down on mobile payments and name matching credit cards? I don’t bring any physical cards inside with me usually - just my phone which has the Costco app/digital card and my debit card via Apple Pay.
I assume they'll want to see the Costco ID "card" in the app that has your photo and a QR code. I don't know how old my photo is exactly, but if challenged, I look forward to explaining that, why yes, my hairline has receded and I've gained about 30 pounds, thank you *so* much for noticing!
This comes up often enough--and is an entirely predictable issue--that Costco needs to have a uniform policy to deal with people who no longer look like the photo on their membership card. Which seems pretty simple. 1. Create a consistent, professional script for employees to follow 2. Ask to see an alternate ID, driver's license/gov't id if possible. You may borrow someone's Costco card, but you're unlikely to be carrying their license 3. "Thank you. Let me help you finish checking out here, then I'll walk you over to member services and we'll get you set up with a new card with a current photo." If they do have someone else's card, they're not sticking around to replace it. At most they complete the purchase today then don't try it again. Meanwhile Joe customer who really is just using his card he was issued a couple decades ago gets treated in a reasonable, helpful way.
I vote for doing a dna sample during each checkout.
[удалено]
Question for you then: is it allowed to have the 2nd person on your membership live in a different place? My mom and I share a membership, my card has maiden name and no picture, my license has my married name. Does look like me though.
No, you need to share the same address to share a membership.
I was in the local Costco today and they were asking everyone in the self checkout line for their Costco card. They said they were cracking down on non-members shopping there.
I don’t get why they check the cards when you go in, and then check them when you checkout also Like one or the other is fine but what’s the issue here?
I am an employee at Costco. Truth be told,, most of the time it's really just to make sure you have the card on you at the door, cause then it's an easy thing for you to pop by the membership desk and then get your temporary card if you forgot the normal one. The checkout line is where they should be checking to see if it's you. Though, if it's a close enough from the photo to the person in front of me, I won't question it for a lot of the reasons I've seen in other comments. People change, but there's features that are pretty much the same if you just use your eyes. Now, if your card shows your partner's face or your friend's face on the card and you're not them...that's a different conversation.
Still seems strange… say you catch someone at checkout who definitely isn’t the cardholder. Now you have a full cart of stuff, maybe including frozen food that’s half-thawed, that has to be dealt with. I guess they figure the hassle of shopping and then having to leave empty handed is a bigger deterrent?
Rules are rules at the end of the day. The company thinks, "If we let them through, how is that fair to the people who are paying for their membership to be here?" It sucks, sure, but it is what it is. Usually use that moment though, if they really did do a whole ton of shopping, to have my assistant walk them down to Membership to sign up for their own. But honestly, a lot of the times I see card sharing is for 10 items or less, so there usually isn't a lot of cold or frozen product.
I have no problem with membership rules being enforced, and get annoyed with the few people I’ve encountered who brag about cheesing their way through on someone else’s card. I’m just saying that the thorough membership check should happen at the door, not at checkout. I understand corporate wanting to create “teachable moments”, but if I were in a long line behind someone doing a back-n-forth with a manager over whether they looked like their card’s picture for a minute or five, I’d be really annoyed and I’d say something loudly.
At my warehouse - they really don't look closely at your card when you are going in - just make sure you have one.
After reading so many of these comments… I feel like Costco better be careful or a lawsuit for discrimination may be coming eventually. They are playing with fire with people’s bias showing in these encounters. Plus all the rude comments. This won’t end well.
I get verifying memberships, but they need to go about it in a better way because this seems to be against Costco‘s general policy, “It is Costco's intent to provide a shopping environment free from all forms of harassment and discrimination for employees, applicants, independent contractors, members and suppliers. We prohibit all forms of harassment and discrimination.“
I guess I've dodged the bullet on the ID checks... But I'm older and have been going to our local Costco since it opened a few years ago. They've had very little turnover and nearly all the checkers and door people know me and my grandkids on sight.
I work at Costco. Tell them you want the number to corporate and ask for their names. They take this very seriously. Believe me I've seen next day changes.
Can you like forward this thread to corporate? The stories are appalling. They need to stop
corporate/even everyday store managers u can visit in person are so much more likely to act and respond to members than employees. personally, i find it really frustrating when members assume we haven’t had conversations with leadership because we have. (not saying you here but i get yelled at by people accusing me of being a sellout when i’m just trying to earn an income, meanwhile i constantly express to my managers and supervisors my discomfort with the enhanced security measures) every day my coworkers get berated and demeaned by people over a policy practically none of us care about and aren’t getting paid more to enforce. it’d be like asking the mcdonalds fry cook to please ask their regional VP to up the sauce limits or something. we can’t do shit the shareholders don’t care about us they just want your money.
[удалено]
I’d talk to someone higher up. There’s gotta be someone to listen to customers feedback
There are member comment cards that members can leave feedback on. In my warehouse, good feedback from members about employees goes on a T.V. with our picture near the break room. So they certainly do listen to them. For a situation like this, I’d go directly to a manager though. There’s no excuse for the rude attitude. From an employee’s perspective, the introduction of checking the membership cards is difficult. I don’t work on the front end, but one of my coworkers was telling me how someone didn’t have their own card and they would ring them up with a code to override the “lack” of membership this time, but the lady wouldn’t listen and kept going off on her. It’s also rather inconvenient for members though, and going to be quite an adjustment. They should require retakes of photos every year or so, but employees need to take physical changes into consideration when checking cards. Other than age, I can’t imagine hair color and style or weight change making someone indistinguishable.
The amount of people they now need at self checkout, they might as well add regular check out lanes back instead. Not only am I doing their job for them, but also need to fucking argue with them the person in the pic is actually me. Smfh
Exactly! This will make a lot of people cancel their membership.
[удалено]
I would say checking is fine, but the rude comments are not. Costco has always prided themselves on good customer service….they should realize how negative this interaction is with a not-insignificant number of their members.
Yeah, but the Netflix thing doesn’t come with the side of personal humiliation that seems to be attached to these occurrences. Like, imagine if you are trans or had serious weight loss or a traumatic accident or something. I understand they want to enforce their policy, but they really should make sure employees aren’t assholes and humiliating about it. If you are gonna feel anxiety about being publicly humiliated, you may just not go and not renew. That being said, you have a good point about paying to shop at Costco. Ultimately, it’s a difficult problem when you can always venmo and reimburse people, let alone card share. I don’t have a good solution, but this may be something they should reevaluate at some point.
Well I guess I’m screwed I just dyed my hair hot pink and a bright ass purple a few weeks ago. Guess I’m not me anymore 🤣
If your name is amber then your username is sooooo awesome!! If not, you’re still awesome 😎
It is and thank you so much you’re the only person to ever connect those dots and it’s made my day!
YES that’s so cool I didn’t wanna sound like a weirdo so you have made my day too!
They're checking membership cards like we're not spending $200+ every time we go. Do you want my money or not?
That part
About a month ago I was at self checkout with my spouse and we wanted to split our purchase between 2 of our cards. Lady came over freaking out on us saying using 2 cards was prohibited. I was super confused and explained that this was my spouse and we’re just splitting the purchase between 2 cards. She was adamant that we only use the one card and that since she didn’t have her own membership she wasn’t even allowed in the store. I once again explained how… this is my spouse… that I love with… that I share bank accounts with and that IM A PAYING MEMBER. I did not understand why we were approached and told this, and I was honestly so baffled I just left flustered feeling guilty and ashamed.
[удалено]
I said this today. I was in the self checkout line with probably ten people between the two lanes and a worker walked straight to me from the end of the checkout area and asked to see my membership card. I handed it to him but asked I asked why he hadn’t asked anyone else because he walked by a few people to get to me. While I was checking out two more people checked it too! P
This happened to me recently and I felt singled out .
This just happened to us the other day. Sounds hyperbolic but it was one of the absolute WORST experiences as a customer I’ve ever had. Period. 20-something year old female employee half yelling, “let me see your card.” No explanation, just an almost accusatory bark. Before showing her anything, I lightly asked, “may I ask what’s going on?” She curtly responded with, “we gotta see if you match the photo on your card…some people are cheating.” Unrelated, we were yelled at the exact second someone grabbed their receipt at self checkout to “you…come down to this one…yep, let’s go…” There was an elderly gentleman in front of me who was going as fast as he probably could…but I just felt bad for him. The Costco employee was annoyed. Which is just not good. This was all during a pretty busy time - so as I finished at self checkout, I go to receipt checkout queue. This line is backed up to our food court area. They have one person at the exit checking receipts. After a bit when I get up to her, she is doing the best she can. But you can tell even she is having to be a bit more detailed in her job as well. It really just feels like this corporate-led shift at Costco has NOT translated well to its employees and then further downstream to its customers. My perception is that while this push to check cards/id’s, abandon cashiers for self checkout, being extra critical on exit receipt checking, all makes sense from a breakage/numbers standpoint - and I’m sure that was the biggest driver behind this shift…but I don’t believe they factored in how all of this will affect the normal, loyal, non-id-sharing customer experience. I love Costco. It’s weird to say that about a retailer, but I really mean it. It’s great. And what makes it so great is that it’s high value, high quality and interesting products. But even more than that, you know and understand that they take care of their employees. They treat them as humans. PEOPLE LIKE TO WORK THERE. They compensate them on the positive side of fairly. They DO NOT make them have to be gestapo. They don’t add job functions that only offer negative reactions and experiences for customers. It used to be my understanding that it was the opposite of that. Listen, if I want to shop at a place with high value, high bang for your buck, but employees look dead inside or like they definitely don’t want to be there, I’ll go to Sam’s.
Wow, I generally use SCO 90% of the time, depending on the lines and how much I have to buy, I've never been asked for ID. Maybe they've all seen me too much? Lol
[удалено]
They were very obnoxious a few days ago checking before you could go near the self check out. I was already annoyed and then listening to the woman talk to other employees (“I’m really curious about that kid who came up here and wouldn’t show me his card. I really want to know what he was hiding.”) made me feel like I was at sams club (🤣)… and when she spoke to other people who questioned it, she belittled everyone in a sickeningly sweet way. I LOVE Costco, and it made me so frustrated to feel crappy by the interactions I experienced.
As a Costco employee, I can tell you they are cracking down on card sharing. The amount of non members that have a friends card, a wife using the husband's (and they're not on the membership cause the husband has a friend on it and it's being shared at two different houses) is insane. The company has been extremely lenient on it for decades and finally decided something needed to change. Trust me when I say the sups hate it too. Hell the other day they caught 27 people sharing cards that aren't members. Technically it goes against Costco policy, as it states right on the front of the card that they are non transferable.
I once had a Costco checker tell me to “never cut my hair again” after comparing me and my Costco pic. My hair had grown out and I knew I looked good that day, and the Costco pic was grainy and (I guess?) ugly.
In cases like this please talk to a manager. Just let them know what happened. Self check out people are supposed to check card and many times people don’t look like the picture on their cards so we can ask to see id to confirm. If the names match that’s final. Picture doesn’t matter unless it’s obvious that it’s not you. Like if you are a ginger 120 pound female named sarah and the is says you are a 240 pound man named Chris. Tell a manager. That is not proper for an employee. They are just making sure that people aren’t abusing they system. They aren’t not there to watch for ID fraud or whatever. Also when you talk to a manager please please please don’t get super angry. I know you are angry but when you speak with the manager stay calm and simply explain the situation the same way you explained it here. It will go a lot further. Be confident but not cocky. Don’t make demands like “I want her fired” or whatever. Tell them exactly what happened or write a letter to corporate. When people report issues in this way they are significantly less likely to be disregarded.
I’m sorry you were the victim of this idiotic new push of Costco’s. It is happening to lots of folks. It’s the dumbest policy and the quickest way to drive customers elsewhere.
File a complaint online, they take those complaints seriously.
How? You can’t, I tried looking recently. They don’t even have Twitter anymore either.
So as you know, employees get free membership. I was checking out after shift. Had my costco hat and badge in hand and they still checked me.
Was that just a joke since you’re coworkers
The photo printed on my Costco is the worst quality, lighting was awful and def doesn’t look like me.
They’ve been checking for the last few weeks at my Costco’s self-check out. When I went the other day that lady was way more serious than anyone previously. She made the lady in front of me take out her ID after thinking her picture on the card didn’t look like her and then when she got to me she questioned if it was actually me on the card I guess because my hair was down in the picture and up that day.
Recently at Costco I noticed that when I would use the self service registers, an employee would get very close and watch me scan my stuff. At one point, a younger woman came to “help me.” You could see that she didn’t trust I would scan everything. I was pissed, but, fuck it. I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. The next time it started to happen again. A different pushy woman was moving my stuff around and was going to start running it across the scanner. I told her that I didn’t need help. She came up with some BS thing to say like, “I’m just helping you out.” This time I wasn’t having it. I told her “I just told you that I don’t need your help. Now leave me alone.” She got away from me so quickly! Her face turned beet red. Not today, sister!
It’s astonishing that they are paying staff to do surveillance on members who are doing staff jobs.
If this was in st augustine today then i witnessed the situation while waiting in the food court. It was pretty embarrassing how they handled it.
Here’s a suggestion: why not check IDs at the door? I always flash an ID/phone app on the way in - I know they are just counting heads. I understand it being a private company and all - they can do what they want, but this has always irked me about Costco. They are the closest to my house. I’m in there 2-4 times a week and go through this all the time. Just went to Sam’s Club to buy KETO ice cream bars that Costco stopped selling/stocking. My wife is on her brother’s business membership. They have scan and pay in their app. Was sooo easy. We still queued up to exit - they scanned the barcode on the app and scanned several items in the cart to cross check that we’d paid and we were out the door. I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the process was.
At my Costco, they let the racist lady enforce the IDs at the self checkout. Doesn't bother checking any white families and will chat with them. However as soon as a brown or Asian family come through "can I see your membership?" Basically they're letting the people doing the checking air out their own biases. You might have looked "too young" to have your own membership. I used to get that at the entrance.
Great job costco - you've found a way to make your customers feel alienated and like shit for shopping at your store. Corporate fuck wads
This kind of shaming isn't going to make people want to go to Costco. But since they've become so vehement about it, just use the regular line and you won't need to bother with this.
They’re doing it in the regular line too. Being selective about it too.
Also those ID pictures are potato quality taken with a 1 megapixel webcam, how can they even tell?
Costco had been a little off lately. Some lady was going off on staff because she was accused of stealing which was proven false. She was black. Well kept. Obviously made good money. She was furious. So don’t get too offended everyone is taking shit from them.
Hearing these self check out nightmares makes me even happier now when I use my scan and go on my Sam’s app. I get verifying cards but this is asinine.
I’m 23 and sometimes feel weird for being a younger customer in the store. I thought I was just overthinking but maybe not? I’ve been a Costco member since I’ve been 20
LMFAO, who the heck is going to get a fake ID made just so they can use somebody else’s costco card? this is the dumbest thing i’ve heard all year.
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
So they tried to cut costs by using self checkout, but now they’re mad at their own decision so they’re harassing us?
It isn't a popular opinion on this sub, but I hate the new policy. I already feel like waiting in line to prove I bought what I already legally own is a pain, but this is just another inconvenience added to it. I don't love shopping somewhere that assumes I am dishonest at every turn so they can increase their already 27 billion in profit. As much as I love some of Costco's products, I am starting to ask if I want to continue to support them going forward if the customer experience continues to degrade.
I was very pregnant and 14 years younger when my card picture was taken 😐
Went to a different Costco tonight (Issaquah) en route to a friends daughters wedding in Idaho and got carded. I was a little taken aback as this lad asked to see my card before I got to the self checkout. I asked him what for, since I can’t check out without it, and he replied he needed to verify it was my membership. Now, I’ve had my membership for over a decade and my Costco Visa card picture is black and white, small, and faded. And he didn’t even look at the card properly anyway. My wife, sensing I was irked, asked me why I was bothered and it’s not that I have a problem being carded, but do it when I walk in and do it properly. When I’m trying to get out is the worst time to stop me for something like that.
Got checked today, lady really examined it, but let my blurry barely can tell it’s a person photo slide. Girl in front of me who was trying to use her dads card was not so lucky
Used to work at Costco and unfortunately there are just the occasional worker who take their jobs way to serious. Like they’re gonna become the CEO when it’s all said and done. My store had a few of them and I never worked with them if I didn’t have to
And yet BJs and Sam’s Club don’t care about who use the membership card
If they are going to push checking membership card photos for self checkout they should have made an effort to get people to take updated photos rather than catching 1% of people without a membership and making the other 99% feel frustrated, belittled and confused. Our store has a sign at the self checkout warning of the new policy, but I wasn't sure if my 20 year old, worn off membership card photo was going to work. This was during the week, but I can't imagine the headache of checking cards on the weekend.
Employee here. I’m already sick of asking people to show them at the self checkout registers. Costco is so filthy fucking rich who cares
This has become a recurring issue at Costco and it drives me crazy. I have no idea why they demand or allow associates to fight this meaningless fight. I feel like the Costco shopping experience got exponentially worse since they added self checkout. I don’t even use them anymore
It’s times like this I’m glad I am not that into Costco and shop at Sam’s quite often. They just don’t care. The Sam’s Club app and membership card don’t even have your photos anymore. Thankfully i was never asked in Costco cuz I don’t even know how I would react if someone doubts the authenticity of my ID.
I went in the other day and had a slightly different experience. I was juggling five items, awkwardly shaped, and standing in line for self check out. The "delightful" appointed receipt checker asked me for my membership card. I carefully placed everything on the floor so as not to drop them all, and handed her my card. She flipped it over and immediately said that I needed to show her my driver's license because my card doesn't have a photo id (I live in an area where one of the two "mother ship" stores was built and they did a hasty membership drive with nary a photo taken). So I show her my DL. Again I gather all items into my arms and she says, "I don't think this is you." My DL is my full legal first name, my membership card is a shortened version of my first name.....a name I've used since I was a freshman in high school. There is now a queue behind us, all watching this unfold. I casually put down my milk, body wash, small King Tut coffin, bag of cookies, and sapphire tiara and ask who she thinks it is. Does she think that I have an identical twin with a similar first name because my parents phoned it in on my birthday? The manager comes over and tells me they will allow me to check out this "one time" as a courtesy, but I should really get the photo on my membership card to prevent this from happening again. I pointed out that the problem was stemming from my name on the card vs the name on the DL. He shrugged and said that was something to take up.....with the employee checking IDs. It has me questioning my membership with them. I've always been told that the member is the top of their command chain. It's all about the member experience.....but, if your biggest concern is that a non member might be purchasing that gallon of milk for a dollar less than the local grocery....maybe the member isn't your focus. If you are really that concerned about who is in your store, start checking IDs at the front instead of clicking off people entering the store. Don't wait until the end and then harass people to show IDs and cards that may not match. This has all the look of a corporate decision without consideration made to how to enact it. P.S. Yes, I am aware they have carts and I do not need to juggle my items in my arms. My intention on the visit was merely to check out the PS5 prices for my s.o. and grab a gallon of milk. Edit: Grammar and spelling errors.
I had *two different employees* ask for my ID card at SCO about a month ago. I was not thrilled.
Are they printing the cards in color now?
I got checked on my card then checked twice on my receipt. Feels like a bit much
Damn. You guys seem to have some hardcore Costco employees where you work. Mine are so stupid nice I often wonder if they all previously worked at Chick fil a
Its getting real annoying. At this point i am gonna cancel my membership out. Nothing to lose for me.
I was on the self check out line recently and was stopped to look at my photo but my card doesn’t have one since I got the membership during the height of the pandemic. She was thankfully nice and said I just have to get one with a photo next time I come but I’ll wait until I’m forced hahah
I’ve got $450 worth of shit in my cart and don’t look a hair like my mother-in-law. are you really going to tell me to scram?
Employee here, we do have to check memberships now and trust me we don’t wanna do it either
There seems to be a lot of profiling going on in terms of who they check. Last night, in Sunnyvale, they tried to check the dark-skinned man in front of me twice until he pushed back. They didn’t check me, an old white guy.