Be prepared to pay the price for that cheap rotisserie chicken and that $1.50 hot dog.
Costco is the latest company to discourage customers from sharing their memberships with strangers, with employees checking shoppers’ IDs more frequently to make sure they aren’t dumping a friend.
“Since expanding our self-checkout, we’ve noticed non-member shoppers using membership cards that don’t belong to them,” the company said in a statement to Fortune. “We think it’s not fair that non-members get the same benefits and rates as our members.”
The crackdown comes as more shoppers use self-checkout in stores. Employees also request identification from these registries.
It also comes as people become increasingly concerned about the cost of groceries, which increases the appeal of bulk purchases. Costco, however, charges an annual membership fee of $60 to shop at its stores. This price has been the same since 2017 and many people are wondering when the company will increase it.
So far he has resisted, but in March CFO Richard Galanti tell investors “It’s a question of when, not if.”
Earlier this year, Costco had 123 million cardholders and a global membership renewal rate of 92.6%.
Costco’s crackdown follows a similar ban on password sharing by netflix. Although unpopular with subscribers, the move was a net positive for the streaming service. Data from third-party analyst Antenna shows there was a big push in new user signups since May 23, when Netflix announced it would begin curb the long accepted practice. Nearly 100,000 people signed up for accounts on May 26 and 27, Antenna said.
