Earlier this month, Costco announced that it will implement membership card-scanning devices at the entrance door of warehouses nationwide to prevent non-members from entering store grounds. The policy — which was met with mixed reviews from shoppers — recently garnered backlash from Costco employees, who took to the Internet to voice their complaints.
A Costco worker posted a lengthy rant on Reddit, claiming shoppers are bullying and harassing store employees over the membership card-scanning policy.
“Members are irate about being mildly inconvenienced at the door by having to prove they are a member at a MEMBERS ONLY store,” the poster, u/gasbottleignition, wrote. “Members are irate about Costco trying to stop people from account sharing…Members are irate because Costco has policies that they AGREED to when they joined, which are being enforced.”
“Now, imagine being the low-level employee at the door that is instructed to enforce those policies.”
The user then detailed a few horrific examples of the “abuse and mistreatment” many employees have faced: “Calling them slurs. Getting in their faces. Swearing at them. Threatening them. Assaulting them. Spitting on them. Complaining to them.” They said they’ve seen “coworkers reduced to tears, crying because a Member decided that it was OK to take out their frustration (bully) on a woman standing at a scanner.”
“We're just doing our jobs, people. Stop being like this,” the user continued. “That smiling face at the door is a low-level employee trying to do their job. They don't make policies. They have NO influence.”
Other Costco workers in the comments shared similar stories of dealing with angry, misbehaving shoppers.
“I’m a supervisor and this guy tried to walk in the exit door and started arguing with our exit door staff (an old man in his 70s) so I stepped in,” said user u/Tgtt10. “He told me that what I am doing is illegal and that he has to be allowed to go to the pharmacy…He proceeded to say how what I’m doing is illegal and that I better watch out because his son works for the Department of Justice.”
Many people sympathized with the workers and even called for Costco to start revoking memberships. “They need to [start] revoking memberships. Ban people,” wrote one user.
“Harassing an employee for enforcing a policy seems like a fast way to getting your membership revoked,” said another Costco customer. A separate user wrote, “I will never in my life understand the need to be rude and mean to someone doing their job.”
Costco’s membership card-scanning policy was formally enforced more than a year after the big-box warehouse chain said it would find stricter ways to prohibit membership sharing. The company told CNBC back in June 2023 that stores were requesting to see cards with a photo at self-checkout registers — and a photo ID if a customer’s membership card doesn’t have a picture.
“Over the coming months, membership scanning devices will be used at the entrance door of your local warehouse,” Costco said in an August statement. “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.”
Costco added that guests must be accompanied by “a valid member for entry.”
