Costco is known for its exceptional customer service and great deals. It keeps customers coming back for more time and time again. However, the warehouse retailer hasn’t always made decisions that aligned with its customers’ needs or wants. Let’s take a look at five times Costco made a big change that left customers shocked.
Costco Membership in 2024
As of 2024, Costco has 132 million members and 71 million paid members. In the United States, the renewal rate for memberships year to year is 92.7%. That puts Costco in second, behind Amazon, for the most popular membership program. There are 871 Costco locations worldwide, including 600 in the U.S. and 271 abroad. These numbers have just continued to increase over the years.
While the CEO of the warehouse retailer has stood behind its decision to keep up things like the $1.50 hot dog combo, there have been some significant changes that customers didn’t agree with.
1. Making Customers Scan Cards at the Door
Over the years, Costco has been trying to crack down on non-members shopping in the store. More recently, they’ve gotten more strict about sharing cards. You must have your own Costco membership card to checkout. No one is allowed to scan their card for you to make it through the checkout line. Now, Costco has announced that members would need to scan their membership cards at the door to be granted entry.
“Over the coming months, membership scanning devices will be used at the entrance door of your local warehouse,” Costco wrote on its website. “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.”
Members will still be able to take guests with them to the store, but they will need to be accompanied by a card-carrying Costco member to gain entry. If you are trying to renew your membership or sign up for a new membership, the Costco employee at the door will ask you to head to the customer service counter before you are able to roam the store and shop.
Some customers have been “irate” about the change, according to one Costco employee who took to Reddit to discuss the new scanners. “Members are irate about being mildly inconvenienced at the door by having to prove they are a member at a MEMBERS ONLY store,” the person wrote.
This is just one change that members will have to get used to in the coming months.
2. Discontinued Senior Shopping Hours
During the height of the pandemic, Costco introduced senior-only shopping hours. At designated times and days, the retailer opened its doors to shoppers 60 and over early. At most locations, senior members were allowed to shop during the hour before the store opened (from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This allowed older shoppers to get into the store without coming into contact with huge numbers of people. With Costco almost always being crowded, this was something that was appreciated by older folks. The retailer decided to stop offering these hours in April of 2022. For some people, not having these designated shopping hours set aside was a deal breaker, especially following the intensity of the pandemic for older individuals.
3. Price Hikes at the Food Court
Costco has made several changes to the pricing of items at the food court over the years. Although the CEO said the price of the hot dog combo would never go up, there have been other things that increased in price. The Chicken Bake, which is another customer favorite, went up $1 in 2022 from $2.99 to $3.99. One Reddit user wrote, “Inflation caught up with the Chicken Bake.” Other shoppers in the thread pointed out that Costco is doing what it can to keep prices low on other items. In addition to the hot dog combo, Costco has kept the price of rotisserie chicken and pumpkin pie the same over the years. That didn’t stop people from lamenting about other prices going up though.
4. Gas Policy in Certain States
The gas stations located at Costco are for members only. This gives people with a membership access to cheaper gas prices. However, in New Jersey, the state made a case against the retailer, stating that Costco was violating the law by providing gas to members only in 2004. For a period of time, Costco started selling gas to anyone in the state, but eventually, they returned to their original members-only access. Initially, people were up in arms about not being able to pull up to a Costco gas station without a membership card.
5. Change in Price for Memberships
To combat inflation and keep prices low, Costco has had to make some adjustments to the cost of membership. In September 2024, the retailer bumped up the price to be a member. Gold Star memberships increased from $60 to $65. The Executive membership went up from $120 to $130. That said, the benefits that go along with the Executive membership also increased. As always, you’ll get 2% back on select purchases with your Executive membership. The maximum annual reward went up from $1,000 to $1,250. This was the first price hike in the price of membership since 2017.
Some members said they’d ditch Costco altogether because of the price increase. “Not renewing – quality of Costco foods has deteriorated over the decades,” one person wrote on Facebook. “That’s one reason why I switched to Walmart,” another person agreed. “They will never get another dime from me.”
Although some customers raged about the increases, Costco backed up its decision. “It has been more than seven years since Costco’s last general membership fee increase,” the retailer said. “Membership fees help to offset costs so we can keep our prices low. A modest increase in fees will allow us to bring our members even greater value.”
Costco Has a Loyal Customer Base
Even though some of these things had customers reeling, Costco has an overall loyal fanbase. People who like shopping at Costco really like Costco. Rolling with the changes is something they’ll have to do to continue shopping there. Generally, people have been largely accepting of each of these things. As the numbers showed, it hasn’t impacted Costco’s membership or growth at all.
What do you think about some of these Costco changes? Were you initially upset? Let us know in the comments.
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