There are plenty of things to love about shopping at Costco. Where else can you buy a massive haul of snacks, produce, and everything else you need for your pantry and fridge at such affordable prices?
Plus, Costco is constantly changing up its inventory and adding fun surprises to its shelves.
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Sometimes, you have to really walk around your local warehouse club store to find those new additions. But when you do, it can feel like unearthing hidden treasure.
Related: Costco quietly drops popular product, saddens fans
Another nice thing about Costco is that if you get hungry in the course of your shopping, there’s a fix for that.
Costco stores are extremely generous with their free samples. And if you shop at the right time, you could easily get a meal’s worth of free goodies just by roaming the aisles.
If you happen to miss out on the good samples by coming at the wrong time, there’s always the food court to fall back on. With classics like the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo and $1.99 pizza slices, it’s easy to grab a quick meal on the cheap.
Image source: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
Costco’s checkout lanes are often a nightmare
If there’s one element of shopping at Costco that isn’t fun, it’s the throngs of people.
Costco tends to draw a large crowd, especially during peak shopping times, like Saturdays and Sundays. But that can make for a stressful situation.
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If you’ve ever found yourself cursing under your breath while trying to find a spot in a Costco parking lot on a weekend, you’re not alone. And even once you get through the store, there’s still the checkout process to contend with.
Costco has done its part to expedite the checkout process by installing self-checkout lanes. But when the store is ultra-crowded, even that doesn’t do the trick.
It’s not unusual to face ridiculously long waits checking out at Costco, which can sour an otherwise positive experience. And once you make it through the cashier area, you sometimes still have to wait in a line for a receipt-checker to give you the go-ahead to walk out the door.
Checking out at Costco could soon get easier
The fact that Costco warehouses tend to get so packed speaks to the store’s popularity. It also speaks to the value Costco’s memberships offer.
Even though Costco raised its membership fees last year, the company had not seen a decline in foot traffic at its stores.
Related: Costco members angry over very personal product change
At the same time, Costco recognizes that reducing wait time at the checkout area can reduce members’ frustration. To that end, CEO Ron Vachris said the company is working on solutions to get people out the door faster once they’re ready to leave.
During the company’s most recent earnings call, Vachris said, “We’ve also engaged in some ‘scan and go done by Costco’ kind of tests that we’re doing out there that have been extremely successful of moving people through the lines and expediting the transactions.”
Vachris also called the results of those early tests “very positive.”
With “scan and go” technology, shoppers can use their phones to scan items as they shop and pay directly through an app. If Costco were to introduce this option, it could help minimize crowds and avoid congestion in the checkout lanes.
Of course, even with the introduction of “scan and go,” Costco members might be subject to a cart and receipt inspection on the way out of the store. But that would still be a huge improvement over the current process.
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“We know there’s many benefits to that part of the Costco experience of moving people through much better,” Vachris told investors.
If this new technology gets implemented, it could eliminate what’s possibly the biggest pain point of shopping at Costco today.
Maurie Backman owns shares of Costco.
