Costco Has a New Trick to Encourage Memberships

Costco customers will soon need membership cards to eat at the food court. 

Currently, both members and non-members can enter the food courts to order meals, like the popular $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, without membership IDs. But that’s slowly changing, as Costco is installing self-serve kiosks with built-in ID scanners.

Eventually, people will have to show their IDs at the kiosks before ordering food as they do to buy groceries. 

According to Eat This, Not That, Costco locations in Florida and California have already started dropping the kiosks at outdoor food courts. 

What Customers Are Saying

One Reddit user said the kiosks have been in California locations for “the past few years” and that they work well. Several others agreed.

For those who haven’t yet experienced them, the news mostly brings excitement.

Some customers hope the kiosks will diminish the traditionally long lines. 

“When I lived in California the Bella terra Costco food court was outdoors and it was full of non members, like packed. It was the most crazy thing I’ve seen,” one member said. 

“It would often create a bit of chaos getting in or out of the store because so many people and carts would be congregating at the food court,” another said.

One customer offered insight into who the kiosks may be stopping.

“I used to sneak in through the exit to get to the food court in my younger days when I didn’t have a membership and wanted a quick cheap snack,” they said. “So this would’ve been a deterrent for me then.”

It’s exactly this kind of non-member that members think should be paying for the food court meals. 

“As someone who works at Costco, these are always the worst type of person,” one Reddit user said of free loaders. “Always rude, always think the world owes them everything and that they’re somehow more special than everyone else. Always sneaking in through membership and then going to the food court. Can’t wait for this to be implemented at ours. The meltdowns are [g]oing to be epic.”

Full Scope of Rollout Remains Unclear

While it’s clear Costco is gradually implementing the kiosks, the warehouse has yet to reveal whether the change will be nationwide and when the official rollout will be underway.

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