Costco's Membership Crackdown Is Getting Out Of Hand

If you've heard about Costco's recent measures to ensure only members enter its stores, you know that the chain is pulling out all the stops to keep shoppers in line. Some shoppers think things are starting to get a little out of hand. 

One Costco member ranted about his own intense experience with the warehouse chain on social media. On TikTok, he mentioned that a Costco employee confiscated his membership card after mistaking him for a celebrity. The shopper was buying groceries from the store when an employee approached him and asked for his Costco membership card and his ID. The employee then compared the ID to the Costco membership card and was not convinced they were both from the same person. The employee then asked the man for another form of identification and even asked if he had his birth certificate on him. 

The employee was confused because he mistook the shopper for an Olympic wrestler. Even after the man explained the mixup, the employee didn't believe that the man shopping was who he said he was and confiscated the membership card. So if you want to know what mistakes to avoid while shopping at Costco, try not vaguely resembling a celebrity.

In the past few months, Costco has made it clear that it is taking security measures seriously. The chain issued a stark new membership-sharing ban earlier this month, and the ban has already met some awkward situations. 

In one story, one mom was banned from the store for life for using her in-law's membership card to shop. One Reddit user had a similar story and claimed that employees confiscated his card when his wife tried to use it to buy groceries. Other Costco members from other Reddit threads claimed that even children weren't safe from these interrogations. One mom entered a Costco with her teenage daughter and was told by employees that her sixteen-year-old would have to get her own card, despite them both living in the same household. 

One user summed up shoppers' feelings pretty simply: "No one should ever feel like they have to prove some sort of innocence... While simply trying to checkout at a Costco."