I'd Never Heard of "Membership Cheating" or "Membership Sharing" at Costco until today.
I'd Never Heard of "Membership Cheating" or "Membership Sharing" at Costco until today. Apparently people are loaning their membership cards to their friends and neighbors in order to shopping at Costco. It's not simply a matter of bringing your neighbor shopping with you and letting them add some items to your cart. Apparently, people are simply handing over their cards to non-members.
For as long as I've had a Costco membership, I've just "flashed" my card to enter the door (apparently that was just a courtesy-check to make sure you didn't forget and leave it at home before loading up with frozen goods.) But now I notice that they're looking at the photo on the card and checking the expiration date.
At self-serve checkout, it used to be scan-and-go ... now, positive ID and examination of the card is necessary.
What a hassle. The abuse must have been pretty bad and cutting into Costco's profit if they've started with these strict checks. Times are hard for everyone, I guess. That's a strong motivator to try and cheat-the-system.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Although if one had a Costco Cash card, that would also work.
You'd think Costco would be happy for the extra sales. It's not comparable to the Netflix model.
member to be on your account with you as long as both have cards with their own name and picture--as we both do. That was the rule then and now. The only difference is NOW they do not allow that designated person to be outside your residence, though when I called I was told they will allow it as long as they have their original card.
You need to rethink your attack on me. You are wrong and over the line. 
I never use self checkout. I don't go there often, it's in another county, but I have a friend on my account and we went together recently and he didn't have his card with him. And at checkout we got in the line with a guy on his first shift on the register. He had a super with him watching... which may have been to our advantage. My friend's CC wouldn't work so he wrote a check but then the super decided that she needed to make sure he really had an account. Since we weren't lying she was very nice about it and we were okay with it since it really wasn't a big deal, I would have covered him but it worked out that they took his check.
There is always a check out at the door but they are only looking at register tape there. I always thought it was kind of lax but I always follow the rules so..?
….tightened up the return policy considerably. The reason we were given? College students “renting” a computer (or TV or whatever) for a semester, then returning it for a full refund as they were packing up to leave town after their papers were submitted. Lots and lots and lots of college students.
So, people have definitely abused their privileges — and now this. I have no problem whatsoever with an extra ID check. I also have no problem taking a friend in and running their purchases thru first. But I’m present, and I’m on the hook for the charges until my friend pays me directly later on.
Someone asked why would Costco do this — isn’t a sale a sale? Well, yes and no. They have a very favorable business model. Their markup is low and their product line is excellent. All us members chip in a pretty low fee per year, which they count on in their profit margin. Their return policy is unbeatable. Their employees get benefits — yes they do.
Basically, no one is forcing anyone to be a customer. They don’t base their business model on driving out every mom and pop store in the county, selling dreck, and hiring people for such low wages that they have to apply for food stamps and other government assistance. Anyone who actually prefers Walmart — well, ouch. If Von’s or Ralph’s is where you like to get your groceries, fine. (Personally, I like Trader Joe’s because the quantities are smaller and there’s only 2 of us at home.) If you can get a better deal on appliances at Lowe’s, by all means — we found our dishwasher and fridge at Lowe’s.
I realize I’m responding to another poster as well as you, so didn’t mean to go on too long. 
I'm retired now and don't go out much. But I used to work in a suburb about 20 miles away, and there was a Costco less than a mile from my office. Shopping at Costco on my lunch hour or on the way home from work was g-r-e-a-t!
Nowadays it doesn't make sense to drive all that way just to shop at one store. I gave up my Costco membership years ago when I retired. (By the way, Sam's Club is much closer to me, and I never contemplated joining it.)
