Illinois Costco Stores Are Just Saying No to Membership Sharing

Illinois Costco stores are taking a nod from Netflix and starting to strongly enforce their no membership-sharing rule.

Every Good Thing Must Come to an End

For years I have been obsessed with shopping at Sam's Club, and then Costco came to town and my addiction to membership stores got way bigger.  I can't say I totally prefer one store over the other because they both have their own set of advantages, but I will admit that one membership I pay for, and the other I "borrow". Well, the glory days of loving two clubs for the price of one are coming to an end, unless I want to open up my wallet and pay for it.

Costco Is Cracking Down on Membership Sharing

ABC 7 Chicago reports that Costco is the latest retailer that is putting a serious stop to membership sharing to "improve their bottom line", and honestly I understand why...even if affects our bottom lines.

Costco membership cards have cardholder pictures on them and customers are required to show those cards as they enter the store and at the checkouts, BUT if a non-member uses the self-checkout lanes, there is a darn good chance you won't get caught. (I may or may not know that from personal experience).

Costco is NOT changing any of its current membership rules, but it will be strongly enforcing its current ones, primarily by spot-checking customers using the self-checkout lanes. Basically, if you're using the self-checkout lanes with someone else's membership card, there's a darn good chance you WILL get caught.

Here's one more warning I saw on Facebook that you might want to be aware of...

Is this crackdown enough to make you finally pay for your own Costco membership, or will you just go on a shopping trip with your Mom every time you want to go to Costco? (asking for a friend, of course).