Costco cracking down on membership card sharing

Costco is cracking down on card sharing.

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The wholesale retailer is following the lead of companies like Netflix and is no longer allowing unauthorized card sharing, the Issaquah, Washington-based company said.

Costco’s membership policy has not changed, but there has been an uptick in employees checking member identification cards at the self-checkout lanes to combat unauthorized use, USA Today reported. The company said that the expansion of Costco’s self-service checkout lanes has coincided with more shoppers using membership cards that do not belong to them.

“We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in a statement. “Costco is able to keep our prices as low as possible because our membership fees help offset our operational expenses, making our membership fee and structure important to us.”

Members whose cards do not include a photograph will be required to present a valid photo ID to verify their identity, Forbes reported.

Costco employees have required customers to show their membership cards at traditional checkout lanes, according to USA Today.

Costco is the largest wholesale club in the U.S. with sales topping $222.7 billion in 2022, The Dallas Morning News reported. Members can purchase a $60 annual “Gold Star” card or pay $120 for an “Executive” card.

The company said it has 119 million customers, CBS News reported.

The company, which reports membership fees separate from total sales, said it collected $4.22 billion in its fiscal year that ended in August 2022, according to the newspaper. Costco made $5.84 billion in profits last year, the Morning News reported.

Netflix announced in late 2020 that it would begin cracking down on password sharing this year. Last month, that became an official policy. Netflix users can no longer share accounts with others who do not live with them, according to Forbes.

Netflix added 100,000 new accounts on both May 26 and May 27, days after the crackdown went into effect, the magazine reported, citing data from Antenna.