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Costco offers Executive and Gold Star memberships for $120 and $60 a year, respectively.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
What’s mine isn’t yours,
Costco
is reminding consumers, striking a similar tone to
Netflix
in its push against account sharing.
The warehouse-store chain said it is going to ask customers for photo identification and their membership card when they go through self-checkout, according to a report from the Dallas Morning News last week.
Costco’s membership policy hasn’t changed—membership cards are always required at checkout—but the company has noticed more nonmembers using other people’s cards given greater usage of self-checkout lanes, a company spokesperson told Barron’s.
“We don’t feel it’s right that non members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Costco (ticker: COST) offers an executive membership for $120 a year and a gold Star membership for $60 a year, according to the company’s website. In 2022, membership fees accounted for $4.22 billion in revenue.
“Costco is able to keep our prices as low as possible because our membership fees help offset our operational expenses, making our membership fee and structure important to us,” the spokesperson wrote.
Costco joins
Netflix
(NFLX) in a push to limit account sharing. Earlier this year, the streaming company began a crackdown on password sharing, sending email messages to customers accessing their account from more than one location.
“A Netflix account is for use by one household,” the company said in a May 23 release. “Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are—at home, on the go, on holiday.” Third-party data reports indicate a sharp uptick in subscribers since Netflix tightened the reins.
Write to Emily Dattilo at [email protected]
Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/costco-membership-card-account-crackdown-sharing-netflix-c0053b62?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo