Bad news if you’re mooching off of someone else’s Costco membership: The retail giant is cracking down.

When you enter Costco, you need to show your membership card to an employee to shop. Costco membership cards are non-transferable, but the company allows members to give a second household card to one other person in their home. Anyone with a card can bring up to two guests to the club during each visit, the company stipulates.

But Costco has noticed that non-members have been sneaking in with membership cards that don’t belong to them — particularly since Costco expanded self-checkout.

Costco recently started asking for shoppers’ membership cards along with a photo ID at the self-checkout registers, the same policy as regular checkout lanes, to crack down. “We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in announcing the change.

And now, Costco is testing out a system that requires members to scan their membership cards at the store entrance — instead of just flashing the card to employees. Shoppers have spotted the new scanners at a store in Washington State and posted photos on Reddit.

  • @[email protected]
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    26 months ago

    A bit belated, but it occurred to me that maybe the card for a second family member doesn’t have a photo, or still has the main member’s photo. I always assumed that the second person would have to get their photo taken for the card but since I’ve never borrowed a card, and don’t have a second user, I wouldn’t know.

    • Snot Flickerman
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      46 months ago

      My partner and I are on an account together. We are not married, different last names. We both have cards with our names and photos.

    • @Ehoalid
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      36 months ago

      When we got my wife a card, they took her photo for her own card.