Costco Door Scanning Rolling Out - Page 5 (2024)

All this talk about Costco cracking down on ID almost makes me not want to bother anymore. I and my back yard neighbor in Atlanta 20 years ago got a membership and shared it---she and I both have our own cards with pictures. She uses it much more than I do (I haven't talked to her in probably 15 years---we are FB friends, though).

Early on we split paying the membership (alternating years) but for the last 10 years or so she's been doing it (she's upgraded to Executive...gets the rebate...etc etc.

I rarely shop in the store (buy some things online), but the location nearest us is a mess and it feels like you're taking your life in your hands. There are some better locations farther away, but I really can't be bothered.

If they give me trouble at the checkstand, they can deal with the reshop. F*** that.

Romr123 wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 6:50 amAll this talk about Costco cracking down on ID almost makes me not want to bother anymore. I and my back yard neighbor in Atlanta 20 years ago got a membership and shared it---she and I both have our own cards with pictures. She uses it much more than I do (I haven't talked to her in probably 15 years---we are FB friends, though).

Early on we split paying the membership (alternating years) but for the last 10 years or so she's been doing it (she's upgraded to Executive...gets the rebate...etc etc.

I rarely shop in the store (buy some things online), but the location nearest us is a mess and it feels like you're taking your life in your hands. There are some better locations farther away, but I really can't be bothered.

If they give me trouble at the checkstand, they can deal with the reshop. F*** that.

I'm unclear what kind of trouble they would give you if you have your own card with your name and picture. Frankly if someone shows up with another person's membership card, that's fraud...and they should be called out for it. I've seen tons of social media posts complaining about this. People know what they signed up and if they gamed the system, well Costco is finally catching up to them, no different than what Netflix did recently.

I personally have no issue with this. Costco is a membership store, after all.

This also serves as a means to keep undesirable types out of the stores.

Brian Lutz wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 3:03 amI don't even have a physical card for Sam's Club, nor have I had a photo taken. My wife bought the membership and added me as a second user on it, and I just added the app to my phone and pretty much always use Scan and Go when we shop there. I don't think I've ever had a card check at the door either, but I get the impression that the Sam's Club here in town tends to be understaffed on a regular basis.

Overall, I get the impression that Sam's Club has made all these investments in technology such as Scan and Go that have effectively reduced the amount of labor needed in a store by about 30%, then decided to run their stores with about 50% less labor.

My Sam's contacts tell me that the issue is all the technology is to allow them to add services Costco can't offer, such as curbside pickup, same day delivery (not via a vendor like Instacart), and ecomm fulfillment from every building. The problem is that the labor budget by store is based on total sales regardless of channel. So if you shop a location with heavy usage of curbside pickup then you can expect to see very light front end staffing. In very high volume Sam's they do curtail the availability of curbside pickup windows especially on weekends for full front end staffing but I can only think of a couple locations where this is the case (Torrance in LA, Fountain Valley). My local store has very heavy use of curbside pickup, but thankfully the clientele skews very young here (younger than Costco for sure) and thus most customers use Scan and Go app. But there definitely is a wider range of usage of the different channels at Sam's, and in some stores I can see where the balance is bad thus leading to a problematic experience. In short if they have high online orders but low customer acceptance of Scan and Go then they will have a rough front end.

storewanderer wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 1:06 am

ClownLoach wrote: ↑August 8th, 2024, 11:04 pm

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑August 8th, 2024, 9:35 pmI experienced the scanners at the entrance today at the Danville, California Costco. There were 2 scanners with employees. I didn't have my card with me, so I had to open up the Costco app and use the digital card. The scanner had trouble scanning my phone. The employee grabbed my phone and tried scanning it himself.

It was not an easy process and I can see how the line cam back up. It definitely uses much more labor.

So I am going to try to get clarification tomorrow, but it appears the expanded front door staff is moved from self checkout. Now self check only gets one employee total. The three stores I visited in the last week all had door scanners and all had only one person in self checkout. That meant they manned the line only and only handled needed overrides, errors, and helped only customers who demand assistance directly. One refused to scan the entire cart and asked me to scan everything myself then call her for the case of water. She then made me lift that heavy item so she could see underneath it which really pissed me off as it was totally unnecessary. First off, it comes off like you're accusing me of something, and what would I hide under a case of water, which by the way is plastic wrapped around and transparent from the top down? I felt very uncomfortable with her bad attitude and suspicious demeanor.

If she wanted to check under the case of water she could lift it herself and check it. What, was she "too busy?" Better yet she can get on the floor and look at it from the bottom up from under the cart and see there is nothing under it.

I guess you could hide something under the case of water though I am not entirely sure what at Costco, also if you did that the case of water would wobble when shook from in the cart so if that was a concern a quick shake and seeing that case of water is stuck in the cart should suffice that nothing is under it.

I cannot believe that behavior.

I quote: "I'm not lifting that. You need to lift it because I need to see underneath to make sure nothing is there." Unacceptable behavior, and unfortunately I think it was also the second example of profiling I've experienced at Costco since this membership crackdown began. Very loud and accusatory tone.

Super S wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 8:26 amThis also serves as a means to keep undesirable types out of the stores.

This. Costco is now extremely aggressive about reporting every single known shoplifting incident and crime to the PD, unlike the vast majority of retailers. They're probably pissed about the fraudulent claims of politicians that retail crime is way down when there are multiple police agencies that literally refuse to do their legally mandated job and accept reports of shoplifting (San Diego County Sheriff dept, I'm looking at you...)

I can't remember if it was Irvine, Tustin, or Murrieta but the PD had shared a wanted video on Instagram from a theft of a wallet from a purse and they mentioned that single Costco location was experiencing over 500 crimes per month. All low crime areas otherwise so I can't imagine how bad it must be elsewhere. Costco is installing spectacular high definition 360° surveillance cameras in the stores because of all these thieves in the stores and releasing the video to the PD for public sharing. Highly doubt many are members, and if they are my guess is they are people who took advantage of the no picture COVID period which are being swept up by this new process after numerous notifications they need to get a picture. At one point I recall Costco was offering them $20 gift cards for the inconvenience of going to spend one minute at the membership desk for a photo. If I was Costco, I would send a notice to all members without photo on file that not only are they now blocked at the door but their membership will be automatically canceled by a certain deadline. I'll bet the thieves got the word out during that no photo period that Costco is the new place to hit. If they had every photo on file I'm sure their LP folks could try to use facial recognition to match the member to the crime videos.

babs wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 7:37 am

Romr123 wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 6:50 amAll this talk about Costco cracking down on ID almost makes me not want to bother anymore. I and my back yard neighbor in Atlanta 20 years ago got a membership and shared it---she and I both have our own cards with pictures. She uses it much more than I do (I haven't talked to her in probably 15 years---we are FB friends, though).

Early on we split paying the membership (alternating years) but for the last 10 years or so she's been doing it (she's upgraded to Executive...gets the rebate...etc etc.

I rarely shop in the store (buy some things online), but the location nearest us is a mess and it feels like you're taking your life in your hands. There are some better locations farther away, but I really can't be bothered.

If they give me trouble at the checkstand, they can deal with the reshop. F*** that.

I'm unclear what kind of trouble they would give you if you have your own card with your name and picture. Frankly if someone shows up with another person's membership card, that's fraud...and they should be called out for it. I've seen tons of social media posts complaining about this. People know what they signed up and if they gamed the system, well Costco is finally catching up to them, no different than what Netflix did recently.

I really doubt they have any idea....again, I've got a perfectly legitimate picture-containing card....so nothing really to do. I've misplaced a card or two over the years and gotten replacements (biggest problem is remembering the zip code of the membership---hers in Atlanta, not mine in Detroit).

ClownLoach wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 12:51 pm

Super S wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 8:26 amThis also serves as a means to keep undesirable types out of the stores.

This. Costco is now extremely aggressive about reporting every single known shoplifting incident and crime to the PD, unlike the vast majority of retailers. They're probably pissed about the fraudulent claims of politicians that retail crime is way down when there are multiple police agencies that literally refuse to do their legally mandated job and accept reports of shoplifting (San Diego County Sheriff dept, I'm looking at you...)

I can't remember if it was Irvine, Tustin, or Murrieta but the PD had shared a wanted video on Instagram from a theft of a wallet from a purse and they mentioned that single Costco location was experiencing over 500 crimes per month. All low crime areas otherwise so I can't imagine how bad it must be elsewhere. Costco is installing spectacular high definition 360° surveillance cameras in the stores because of all these thieves in the stores and releasing the video to the PD for public sharing. Highly doubt many are members, and if they are my guess is they are people who took advantage of the no picture COVID period which are being swept up by this new process after numerous notifications they need to get a picture. At one point I recall Costco was offering them $20 gift cards for the inconvenience of going to spend one minute at the membership desk for a photo. If I was Costco, I would send a notice to all members without photo on file that not only are they now blocked at the door but their membership will be automatically canceled by a certain deadline. I'll bet the thieves got the word out during that no photo period that Costco is the new place to hit. If they had every photo on file I'm sure their LP folks could try to use facial recognition to match the member to the crime videos.

Spot on !

Scant discussions about what cops are not doing or are refusing to do (formally or not).

LAPD is another one that is negligent. They rarely show up and if they do it is exactly what Clownloach describes.

Side note: they don't seem to like giving out citations for texting, black out windows or even expired tags, etc. (unless they are profiling).

They seem to love high speed chasing and an opportunity to pull their guns out.

veteran+ wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 5:30 pm

ClownLoach wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 12:51 pm

Super S wrote: ↑August 9th, 2024, 8:26 amThis also serves as a means to keep undesirable types out of the stores.

This. Costco is now extremely aggressive about reporting every single known shoplifting incident and crime to the PD, unlike the vast majority of retailers. They're probably pissed about the fraudulent claims of politicians that retail crime is way down when there are multiple police agencies that literally refuse to do their legally mandated job and accept reports of shoplifting (San Diego County Sheriff dept, I'm looking at you...)

I can't remember if it was Irvine, Tustin, or Murrieta but the PD had shared a wanted video on Instagram from a theft of a wallet from a purse and they mentioned that single Costco location was experiencing over 500 crimes per month. All low crime areas otherwise so I can't imagine how bad it must be elsewhere. Costco is installing spectacular high definition 360° surveillance cameras in the stores because of all these thieves in the stores and releasing the video to the PD for public sharing. Highly doubt many are members, and if they are my guess is they are people who took advantage of the no picture COVID period which are being swept up by this new process after numerous notifications they need to get a picture. At one point I recall Costco was offering them $20 gift cards for the inconvenience of going to spend one minute at the membership desk for a photo. If I was Costco, I would send a notice to all members without photo on file that not only are they now blocked at the door but their membership will be automatically canceled by a certain deadline. I'll bet the thieves got the word out during that no photo period that Costco is the new place to hit. If they had every photo on file I'm sure their LP folks could try to use facial recognition to match the member to the crime videos.

Spot on !

Scant discussions about what cops are not doing or are refusing to do (formally or not).

LAPD is another one that is negligent. They rarely show up and if they do it is exactly what Clownloach describes.

Side note: they don't seem to like giving out citations for texting, black out windows or even expired tags, etc. (unless they are profiling).

They seem to love high speed chasing and an opportunity to pull their guns out.

San Diego County Sheriff dept has tried to systematically eliminate store detectives and loss prevention agents. They have made a unwritten policy that they will not under any circ*mstances come out to cite a shoplifter detained by a LP agent. So now the store can't even enforce a no trespassing order if one applies either because they refuse to show up. They also won't accept a report at the office unless accompanied by a preposterous amount of paperwork that probably wouldn't fit in a shopping cart and would take a thousand hours to seek out if it exists at all. No report, no crime = falsified statistics of improving crime rates. I know Costco has a regional office there, but the lack of cooperation is probably why they tested the scanners there first to keep out the problems.