Only thing is with executive and the credit card I haven't paid for membership in 8 years. I always get between $500 and last year was a record at $1200 back between both. Just gas cash back alone pays for the membership even if you didn't buy anything else and that's before the price difference (best quality fuel because of their relentless pump filter cleaning and it's Chevron gas, fastest pumps by far completely cancel out any wait time and all my local stores have between 30 and 32 pumps now). Their regular customers are not paying for membership after the executive cash back. Almost makes me wonder if they'd be happier to only offer executive.veteran+ wrote: ↑November 30th, 2023, 9:17 amYou might have read the same article that I read about this Membership Fee thing.storewanderer wrote: ↑November 30th, 2023, 12:06 am I think Costco really left a bad taste in people's mouth with the card sharing harassment and how they went about it.
People are struggling with the inflation that has occurred on various products and services and health insurance and auto insurance providers have pushed 15-25% increases out in recent months or will be rolling such increases out 1/1/2024 so it is going to get even worse soon here.
A lot of businesses have been trying to operate on installment/membership models and I think there is a segment of consumers who are struggling who have gotten the bright idea to "cut installment/memberships they don't really need" so things like the monthly car wash membership, that fitness membership you rarely or ever use, get cut. Then the next month comes and as everything keeps increasing in cost you keep thinking of what else to cut. That Costco membership just so happens to be coming due again and you start to think gosh every time I go shop there I spend $200 or $300 and now they want $60 for a membership renewal you know what I am going to just not renew that membership.
Costco can be a major cash cow in the US on an ongoing basis but I think the major growth era may be over for them in the US.
They probably need to adjust some of their perishable merchandise to some smaller sizes (Sam's has done a lot of this) because consumers are also becoming much more concerned about waste and what I have learned with dedicated Costco grocery shoppers is they throw away a LOT of food. They think they are getting some screaming deal at Costco but they throw so much away they'd be better off ad shopping at other grocers and just buying what they need.
It discussed how many Americans are over burdened with all these Fees they are paying to glean discounts and perks via membership. It also discussed food waste in relation to large sized product purchases.
Supposedly they're getting a new touchscreen POS that will display the picture of the member "very large" so that's why they're turning the heat back up on the membership thing. They're also trying to move to a digital only membership card with changing QR code so a screen shot won't work and it has some kind of token that won't allow you to share your username and password, if you are detected using it on multiple devices by IMEI number it will be locked and you'll have to go to membership counter to reset it. Lots of technology coming to Costco, but none that I see as a customer benefit (like Sam's Scan and Go, or even their internal company app "Ask Sam" which is basically an AI powered employee search engine and they help customers with it now).