Costco Door Scanning Rolling Out

[ClownLoach]

Rolling out scan to enter right now in San Diego market. Basically is two iPads each on a stand with a screen that faces the employee. The second you scan your photo comes up on the screen. Lots of people walking past and getting turned back to scan at the original store on Morena. No physical gate unlike the French warehouses.

[reymann]

i've heard rumors after the rollout is complete that nonmembers over 18 will need a valid ID to enter costco stores.

[storewanderer]

i've heard rumors after the rollout is complete that nonmembers over 18 will need a valid ID to enter costco stores.

How does that work? A couple comes in and one of them has a card/scans it- the other person in the couple has to show ID? If they don't have a card too?

What will be done with this ID data/how will it be stored? This sounds like a privacy issue.

How does one validate if the customer is over 18?

This sounds ridiculous. I guess as long as their stores are overcrowded they can hassle people like this. I'm waiting for the day they are begging customers to come to their store and eliminate all these types of hassles/the people who come up with these ideas that just push customers around. That day will come.

[ClownLoach]

i've heard rumors after the rollout is complete that nonmembers over 18 will need a valid ID to enter costco stores.

How does that work? A couple comes in and one of them has a card/scans it- the other person in the couple has to show ID? If they don't have a card too?

What will be done with this ID data/how will it be stored? This sounds like a privacy issue.

How does one validate if the customer is over 18?

This sounds ridiculous. I guess as long as their stores are overcrowded they can hassle people like this. I'm waiting for the day they are begging customers to come to their store and eliminate all these types of hassles/the people who come up with these ideas that just push customers around. That day will come.

There is zero policy change. Members may bring up to two guests as always. There was zero line created and this is one of the busiest stores being the oldest in the company.

They are not asking for any ID. If your picture is not on file they do tell you to please see the membership counter. There isn't even any equipment that could physically handle an ID.

The only policy regarding ID is if you were one of the few members that signed up during the pandemic and didn't have your picture taken. They are going to hassle every one of those members until they have a picture on file, and I don't blame them. Allegedly they were all sent letters and emails over a year ago to please visit the membership desk for a replacement card with photo "no waiting" and they would receive a $10 gift card for the inconvenience. I suspect that Costco will just cut off their cards if they don't get a photo soon, it is part of the membership agreement.

Honestly this is a big nothing of a change. It's as frictionless as possible. You enter exactly as before but just wave your card or phone at the scanner instead of the person. It's the same Symbol scanner they put at the self order kiosk in the food court, reads very well and from a good distance. It beeps loudly to indicate you scanned. Arguably better than the many door greeters who don't see you the first time and then yell "Sir! You in the red shirt? I didn't see your card!" Only change really needed is more signage during the rollout to warn people they're going to scan instead of "wave their card" at someone.

Also no clue where the news bozos came up with no cards at the register, that doesn't even make sense because then you wouldn't get the executive reward or be able to return without receipt. Of course you have to scan at the register still. They did seemingly remove the people inspecting self checkout memberships.

Remember that one of the critical data points at Costco is the door count, which is still manually counted with this system. They don't want lines to enter or backups; this is why they were quick to start ignoring COVID regulations and let everyone pack their warehouses after the first couple of months of COVID. They are not going to do stupid things to affect that. They only want to see that a member is present with guests, and they want only a member to pay because if the transaction is paid with a bad check or card then they are locked out of future use until the debt is repaid. If a non member used their card and paid with a bad credit card that was charged back later then they can't hold the member accountable. Allegedly they got hit with a lot of credit card fraud and that is the real reason they were so fanatical about self checkout membership use; people with stolen membership cards paying with stolen credit cards.

[storewanderer]

i've heard rumors after the rollout is complete that nonmembers over 18 will need a valid ID to enter costco stores.

How does that work? A couple comes in and one of them has a card/scans it- the other person in the couple has to show ID? If they don't have a card too?

What will be done with this ID data/how will it be stored? This sounds like a privacy issue.

How does one validate if the customer is over 18?

This sounds ridiculous. I guess as long as their stores are overcrowded they can hassle people like this. I'm waiting for the day they are begging customers to come to their store and eliminate all these types of hassles/the people who come up with these ideas that just push customers around. That day will come.

There is zero policy change. Members may bring up to two guests as always. There was zero line created and this is one of the busiest stores being the oldest in the company.

They are not asking for any ID. If your picture is not on file they do tell you to please see the membership counter. There isn't even any equipment that could physically handle an ID.

The only policy regarding ID is if you were one of the few members that signed up during the pandemic and didn't have your picture taken. They are going to hassle every one of those members until they have a picture on file, and I don't blame them. Allegedly they were all sent letters and emails over a year ago to please visit the membership desk for a replacement card with photo "no waiting" and they would receive a $10 gift card for the inconvenience. I suspect that Costco will just cut off their cards if they don't get a photo soon, it is part of the membership agreement.

Honestly this is a big nothing of a change. It's as frictionless as possible. You enter exactly as before but just wave your card or phone at the scanner instead of the person. It's the same Symbol scanner they put at the self order kiosk in the food court, reads very well and from a good distance. It beeps loudly to indicate you scanned. Arguably better than the many door greeters who don't see you the first time and then yell "Sir! You in the red shirt? I didn't see your card!" Only change really needed is more signage during the rollout to warn people they're going to scan instead of "wave their card" at someone.

Also no clue where the news bozos came up with no cards at the register, that doesn't even make sense because then you wouldn't get the executive reward or be able to return without receipt. Of course you have to scan at the register still. They did seemingly remove the people inspecting self checkout memberships.

Remember that one of the critical data points at Costco is the door count, which is still manually counted with this system. They don't want lines to enter or backups; this is why they were quick to start ignoring COVID regulations and let everyone pack their warehouses after the first couple of months of COVID. They are not going to do stupid things to affect that. They only want to see that a member is present with guests, and they want only a member to pay because if the transaction is paid with a bad check or card then they are locked out of future use until the debt is repaid. If a non member used their card and paid with a bad credit card that was charged back later then they can't hold the member accountable. Allegedly they got hit with a lot of credit card fraud and that is the real reason they were so fanatical about self checkout membership use; people with stolen membership cards paying with stolen credit cards.

The post above said there was a rumor about wanting all nonmembers to show ID.

The membership cards without a photo definitely need photos.

[ClownLoach]

How does that work? A couple comes in and one of them has a card/scans it- the other person in the couple has to show ID? If they don't have a card too?

What will be done with this ID data/how will it be stored? This sounds like a privacy issue.

How does one validate if the customer is over 18?

This sounds ridiculous. I guess as long as their stores are overcrowded they can hassle people like this. I'm waiting for the day they are begging customers to come to their store and eliminate all these types of hassles/the people who come up with these ideas that just push customers around. That day will come.

There is zero policy change. Members may bring up to two guests as always. There was zero line created and this is one of the busiest stores being the oldest in the company.

They are not asking for any ID. If your picture is not on file they do tell you to please see the membership counter. There isn't even any equipment that could physically handle an ID.

The only policy regarding ID is if you were one of the few members that signed up during the pandemic and didn't have your picture taken. They are going to hassle every one of those members until they have a picture on file, and I don't blame them. Allegedly they were all sent letters and emails over a year ago to please visit the membership desk for a replacement card with photo "no waiting" and they would receive a $10 gift card for the inconvenience. I suspect that Costco will just cut off their cards if they don't get a photo soon, it is part of the membership agreement.

Honestly this is a big nothing of a change. It's as frictionless as possible. You enter exactly as before but just wave your card or phone at the scanner instead of the person. It's the same Symbol scanner they put at the self order kiosk in the food court, reads very well and from a good distance. It beeps loudly to indicate you scanned. Arguably better than the many door greeters who don't see you the first time and then yell "Sir! You in the red shirt? I didn't see your card!" Only change really needed is more signage during the rollout to warn people they're going to scan instead of "wave their card" at someone.

Also no clue where the news bozos came up with no cards at the register, that doesn't even make sense because then you wouldn't get the executive reward or be able to return without receipt. Of course you have to scan at the register still. They did seemingly remove the people inspecting self checkout memberships.

Remember that one of the critical data points at Costco is the door count, which is still manually counted with this system. They don't want lines to enter or backups; this is why they were quick to start ignoring COVID regulations and let everyone pack their warehouses after the first couple of months of COVID. They are not going to do stupid things to affect that. They only want to see that a member is present with guests, and they want only a member to pay because if the transaction is paid with a bad check or card then they are locked out of future use until the debt is repaid. If a non member used their card and paid with a bad credit card that was charged back later then they can't hold the member accountable. Allegedly they got hit with a lot of credit card fraud and that is the real reason they were so fanatical about self checkout membership use; people with stolen membership cards paying with stolen credit cards.

The post above said there was a rumor about wanting all nonmembers to show ID.

The membership cards without a photo definitely need photos.

I've read different versions of the social media garbage rumors. One says they will record ID. Another says they will require anyone but the member to provide a credit card. None of this is even a remote possibility, they would have to install an army of people at the door and dozens of kiosks just to get the entrance open. The door counts for the first hour of operation would be like zero. And what exactly would they use this for? Better question: why would they want to take on the SUBSTANTIAL LIABILITY of housing such data which if lost could result in billions of dollars in lawsuits? Sometimes people need to just use common sense. No human can see the dumb little picture on the card, all the photos are in a database anyway which is in the new returns touchscreen POS that is slowly developing, so they just put a scanner to blow up the photo for the person at the door to see a real member is present.

If I had to guess the real technological rush will be getting the self checkout register to show the pictures while the member is checking out so they can see if a non member managed to get in and borrow a card. Eventually when all the registers are touchscreen they will be able to load the picture and the cashier can instantly see if a nonmember is paying. Again I am told the real truth of the issue is nonmembers with stolen credit cards making mass purchases with stolen or borrowed memberships, running up bad debt. Costco is unique in that theoretically they require ID to purchase and only allow members to do so, which might result in a different response from credit card processors than a normal retailer would get (which basically is if the card is real it isn't their problem). Remember they signed a discounted agreement based on their unique business model which theoretically should reduce fraud substantially over regular retailers, so we don't know if they're more liable than others.

I also wonder when we will start to see the foreign standard for credit cards arrive here, photos on the card. I used to work near the Port and would get many international credit cards. Most had photos on them, much higher quality than the ones from the 90s that don't seem to exist anymore. They usually had some engraving and microprinting of the photo similar to a drivers license. Of course these folks were always startled about having to swipe instead of use a chip. Photo technology similar to what Costco is using could be a great solution to reducing credit card fraud, but then it would likely require a whole new generation of credit card machines with operator screens that show the photo.

[mbz321]

If I had to guess the real technological rush will be getting the self checkout register to show the pictures while the member is checking out so they can see if a non member managed to get in and borrow a card.

The best solution would be for Costco to follow the lead of other retailers and severely limit or scrap 'Self' checkouts. The entire system makes zero sense in the way it is configured and staffed, and checking cards at the door would only help in the slightest.

My location gave up card checking at the Self Checkout before the holidays, and everyone knows it (despite the next nearest Costco still checking all day, every day). I can't recall the exact numbers but it was quite high the amount of shrink (at least the stuff that isn't caught at the exit door) they believe is coming from SCO's (Then why do we still have them??)

[ClownLoach]

If I had to guess the real technological rush will be getting the self checkout register to show the pictures while the member is checking out so they can see if a non member managed to get in and borrow a card.

The best solution would be for Costco to follow the lead of other retailers and severely limit or scrap 'Self' checkouts. The entire system makes zero sense in the way it is configured and staffed, and checking cards at the door would only help in the slightest.

My location gave up card checking at the Self Checkout before the holidays, and everyone knows it (despite the next nearest Costco still checking all day, every day). I can't recall the exact numbers but it was quite high the amount of shrink (at least the stuff that isn't caught at the exit door) they believe is coming from SCO's (Then why do we still have them??)

Most busy stores needed these desperately because they added between 6 and 9 additional registers. There physically was no room for more registers in those stores, and they basically staff all the self checkouts as if they were regular ones.

So the challenge is the lower to middle volume stores where they cannot put a 1 to 1 cashier to self checkout ratio. Maybe those stores should not have self checkout.

But they definitely more than pay for themselves in the majority of their overcrowded, maxed out buildings on the West Coast where the oppressive lines used to discourage anything but the "must go there because we need a lot of stuff" trips. I am sure there is a strong correlation between the big rollout the last 5 years and the comp sales growth they experienced in the same time frame. I was in a store last December where self checkout was down for some reason and a massive line had formed that hit the meat counter at the back of the store. That's how much they help reduce the lines and encourage additional trips. With that factored in, SCO shrink might actually be covered by additional incremental sales and profit dollars.

[storewanderer]

If I had to guess the real technological rush will be getting the self checkout register to show the pictures while the member is checking out so they can see if a non member managed to get in and borrow a card.

The best solution would be for Costco to follow the lead of other retailers and severely limit or scrap 'Self' checkouts. The entire system makes zero sense in the way it is configured and staffed, and checking cards at the door would only help in the slightest.

My location gave up card checking at the Self Checkout before the holidays, and everyone knows it (despite the next nearest Costco still checking all day, every day). I can't recall the exact numbers but it was quite high the amount of shrink (at least the stuff that isn't caught at the exit door) they believe is coming from SCO's (Then why do we still have them??)

Emphasis on "shrink they believe is coming from SCOs."

What makes them so sure the shrink is coming from SCOs?

Because shrink is higher overall than before they were installed?

Also why isn't it being caught at the door?

[veteran+]

I have lost count of how many studies have been conducted linking "POS shrink" numbers to self checkouts. The nexus is real. The only variances are when the number of staff comes close to the number of idiot customers working these machines.

What I would love to see are the productivity numbers regarding speed of scanning, paying, bagging, etc. of customers versus even the worst cashiers, just for kicks and giggles.

I might even wager a bet on which side is more productive and efficient.