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(Trends Wide) — Some Costco shoppers buy rotisserie chickens for $4.99 and pay at the checkout. The problem is that not all are partners.
Since Costco expanded self-checkout, the company has noticed non-members using membership cards that don’t belong to them. The department store chain will now ask shoppers to present their membership card along with a photo ID to use the cash registers, the same policy as for regular checkouts.
“We don’t think it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and prices as our members,” Costco said in a statement.
Costco has some 120 million members, making it one of the largest membership clubs in the world. Costco members pay $60 each year for a regular membership or $120 for an executive shopping card.
This membership model is critical to Costco’s business, as dues help increase company profits and offset expenses. The company hasn’t raised the cost of its membership since 2017, despite rivals like Amazon and Sam’s Club raising their fees.
Any change in membership growth could hurt Costco.
“The extent to which we achieve growth in our member base, increase executive membership penetration, and maintain high renewal rates materially influences our profitability,” Costco routinely says in its annual presentations.
Netflix also recently cracked down on members sharing passwords.
The streaming giant previously turned a blind eye to password sharing because it fueled growth, but all those non-paying members were hurting Netflix’s bottom line. It is estimated that more than 100 million households around the world share an account.
Early results indicate that Netflix’s new policy is paying off. The streaming service has seen the largest increase in the number of new subscribers as a result of the crackdown since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when people stayed at home watching content on the platform.
