Ever shared your Costco card with a friend?Those days are about to end after the retailer began installing card readers at locations across British Columbia and Alberta.From now on, shoppers will be required to scan their membership cards upon entry or provide photo ID confirming their entry and cards without photos. The machines have reportedly been appearing at locations in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary starting this week and the company plans to roll them out at all 107 Canadian locations.And that also goes for the $1.50 hotdogs at the food court, where non-members used to be allowed to eat.It follows a similar move in the US where the company has 575 warehouses. Last summer it began asking shoppers at self-checkout lines for their membership cards and photo ID after finding non-members sneaking in to use membership cards that didn’t belong to them.On its website, Costco says all “guests” will have to be accompanied by a valid member to gain entry.“Over the coming months, membership scanning devices will be used at the entrance door of your local warehouse. Once deployed, prior to entering, all members must scan their physical or digital membership card by placing the barcode or QR Code against the scanner,” it said.“We don’t feel it’s right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” Costco said in a statement..Response to the new requirements were generally met favorably on social media sites although some complained they were being treated like criminals. Others said they would make purchases for their elderly parents using their cards.One angry Redditor user wrote: “I get WHY they are doing it, but they need better training because these employees are treating people like we’re all there to shoplift.”It comes as Costco plans to increase its membership fees for the first time in a decade to $65 from $60 starting on September 1.It’s not immediately clear how much the company hopes to gain from installing the scanners versus the actual amount of losses from card sharing.But Richard Galanti, Costco’s recently retired CFO, told The Wall Street Journal last year that only a “really small percent” of members are sharing cards. “But when you’re dealing with millions of transactions, even a very small percentage is something you would want to correct.”
