costco chase down

[thehippie777]

This one happened to me & my friends a couple years ago.

I have been a member of Costco for years now. Many of my friends go to the food court and grab their awesome hotdogs pretty regularly. We have never been stopped going in the food court area, until this one time. By chance I hadn't brought my member card, matter of fact I had lost my wallet at the time (fell outa my purse behind the guy I was dating's house...in an alley). Well, like 5 of us are like, "Costco hot dogs!!! one day" So we go...

Well, we go past the member sign-up area, and get nearly to the stand that sells the food when this older gentleman employee (who is huffing and apparently had been 'pursuing" us) asks us all if we have member cards. We all look at eachother confused and I go, "I do..."and go to get into my pockets and then realize I just lost my wallet. Then I say, "Oh man no I don't. I lost my wallet yesterday!" (which just has sounded like a lie, but it wasn't) Everyone in the groups look at me disappointed. Then the employee says, "In order to be here you have to have a Costco membership card." Which, btw, was news to us cuz what we had come in here for hot dogs how many times before and never had someone chase us down from the entrance. We mention this and he tells us that we weren't allowed into this area without them. The guy proceeds to walk us all out. We were...a bit angry. I wish I would have been more aware to consult another employee at the time, but we were all in shock and frankly I was already upset about losing my wallet.

I go to Costco regularly still, and to this day, I have never seen that guy again & no one I know has ever been chased out of the food court ever again.

What was with that overzealous guy???? What if we had been getting a hot dog and were going to get memberships and this guy ran us out??? It was weird...

[smileyeagle1021]

OK, in advance... but I can't help myself

*in best SC voice* you meen that there are actually things like Costco in Montana


that said, this is why I like Sams... they don't actually care if you have membership or not... but if you show up to the register without a membership card expect the price of membership to be included in your purchase, and please take your reciept to customer service to get your card (at least that's how the one on 3rd west used to be set up... I don't know if they still do that).

[simpleyme]

I have never been kicked out of the food court , but as I walk in the store i do what everyone else does and just flash my card and go in

until one day.......... super overzealous employee shouts mam mam you must stop and show me your card! I continue to sort of hold it up and he informs me I must flip it over so he can look at it closely to make sure its mine
after careful examination of my card the ahole let me in

at the checkout i totally get it but at the entrance it just harassment

[cawaker]

the costco by me has the food stuff outside.

they have kick ass pizza too.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I work in a wholesale club as well, and we're very open about non-members coming in to look around, check our stock and see whether they want to sign up. As such, when I'm FDLP, I don't actually have to check the cards coming in, though it doesn't stop people from holding it up anyway.

As I like to tell people, "We are not the Costco Gestapo."

I say this because I have also been stopped by the Costco "greeter," who demanded to see my Costco card. I held up my mom's card, and went on, ignoring him when he demanded to check it more closely. His hollering for me to come back, coupled with the general unhelpfulness of the employees, the poor organization, and the unfriendly cashiers, all added up to my determination to never go back.

[thehippie777]

OK, in advance... but I can't help myself

*in best SC voice* you meen that there are actually things like Costco in Montana


that said, this is why I like Sams... they don't actually care if you have membership or not... but if you show up to the register without a membership card expect the price of membership to be included in your purchase, and please take your reciept to customer service to get your card (at least that's how the one on 3rd west used to be set up... I don't know if they still do that).

Yeah we don't have a Sam's in the area... lol

Other then that incident, I have never had a problem with Costco. I don't see why they are so into checking cards because you can't purchase anything without it lol

[DeltaSierra]

I've always wondered why "membership only" stores don't simply let everybody come IN so they can look around, get an idea of there's some stuff they want enough to purchase a membership, and if they DO buy something, the cashier's make sure they have their card first. I've often wanted to go to Costco at Christmas time to check out their product, but can't even get in without a membership.

[tollbaby]

Neecy, just go with someone who has a membership I shop at Costco once every few years with my mom - it's great fun, but I have a tiny apartment, so buying huge bunches of stuff wouldn't work for me in my current sitch.

[Kogarashi]

The one time I went in Sam's Club without a membership card, the greeter simply pointed me in the direction of the membership desk. And I think my sister explained that she went one time without a card, and you just get a day pass or something that lets you shop, but everything's 10% more cost-wise.

Hubby and I have been in Costco once. We wanted to buy something, but didn't have a membership card. In order to get to the membership desk, we had to walk around a huuuuuuuge display of tvs, plants, and assorted boxes, wander past the registers, and finally approach the desk. We ended up just wandering back out instead.

I don't see why someone couldn't buy food at the food court without a membership card. You don't need the card scanned to actually buy food, so it's not like the store is an "exclusive" location. Otherwise people couldn't get in far enough to sign up for a membership.

[Department stores *sigh*]

I held up my mom's card, and went on, ignoring him when he demanded to check it more closely.

They probably wanted to inspect it more closely since it wasnt your card and your not allowed in with someone elses card......

Sorry dont want to sound harsh but it suprises me that people get annoyed at that sort of thing. By signing up with costco dont you also agree to this practice? And by not being a member is it really that odd that they wont let you in? It's a club/membership deal not a regular supermarket.

Sorry just my 2c on the whole costco door checker thing.


On topic of the guy saying you cannot buy at the food court is fairly odd. I have never seen that happen at my local costco and my understanding of their policies is you only need the membership to be on the sales floor. The food court is behind the registers at mine. Im pretty sure you can order pizza without a membership as well from there. Pickup only of course.

[nomorecarts]

Sorry dont want to sound harsh but it suprises me that people get annoyed at that sort of thing. By signing up with costco dont you also agree to this practice? And by not being a member is it really that odd that they wont let you in? It's a club/membership deal not a regular supermarket.

if you can't go in and look how do you know if you want to join? you can look online, but that's what the company carries, not your local store, and the main attraction for costco is that it's nicer than most other wholesale clubs, and has better service from what i've heard, and also has slightly higher prices to pay for the store being pretty and better service, so if you can't get in, how do you know you want to join?

[Department stores *sigh*]

and also has slightly higher prices to pay for the store being pretty and better service

Taken from the Wikipedia entry on Costco's sales model:
Sales Model

Costco focuses on selling products at low prices, often at very high volume.

/end wiki quote

Costco is geared to provide extremely low costs for as many bulk items as possible. They even cut costs by not having bags and by having light sensitive lights that turn off automatically when the store gets to bright from the sunroofs.

And I'm not sure about it being nicer. I never understood that mentality with any store. How can a chain claim to be "nicer" when you have stores everywhere and hire from multiple groups of people? I'm sure its just as nice or not as nice as any other place IE. Wal-Mart, Zellers, Totem etc etc

[Primer]

You could always say that you're going to the Pharmacy. You do NOT need a membership to purchase prescriptions. While you're inside "waiting," take the time to wander around.

My mom used to get some of her drugs from Costco. I took her in once and we wandered while she was waiting. For the stuff I'd be getting, Sam's is (was) cheaper. I've not been back.

[wanderingjoe72]

He was being a bit overzealous. If you mention that you lost your wallet, I would have figured he should have directed you to the memeber services desk for a replacement rather than try to kick you out of the store.

I thought you mentioned it was an older guy, so maybe he didn't want any "damn kids" in his store.

[Jack7957]

I don't have a Costco in my area, just a Sam's and BJ's. BJ's, anyone can wander in and look around, Sam's you need to flash your card. I used to have a BJ's membership, but switched to Sam's since it was closer and I hated how BJ's had their gas station right at the front of the store, causing traffic problems. Anyways, the wife and I went to Sam's one night, told the greeter we wanted to look around since we were thinking of switching from BJ's to Sam's, and she said we could go right ahead and look around.