Costco tests new scanners to crack down on membership sharing
CBSN
Costco is testing new technology that could lead to a crack down on membership-sharing, or when people who haven't paid for an annual membership piggyback off of paying members' cards.
Generally, Costco members need only flash their membership cards at employees to gain entry to the shopping club. Memberships are non-transferrable, but households can receive one extra membership card. A basic membership costs $60 annually, while the executive membership, which has perks like a 2% cash back reward, is $120 per year.
Now, Costco is testing a strategy that could combat membership sharing: It is asking shoppers to scan their membership cards at stores' entrances. The wholesale club's latest move comes as the chain has introduced self-checkout registers, which have make it easier for these sorts of shoppers to slip through the cracks.
More than 40% of TSA officers called out of work on Tuesday at an airport in Houston – one of three major airports in the U.S. where over a third of workers called out that day. Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report. In:
Higher U.S. gasoline prices stemming from the Iran war could effectively wipe out the fatter tax refunds many Americans are expected to collect this year, a new analysis found. Edited by Alain Sherter In:
Two crew members of a tugboat were killed and two others were injured in what the Coast Guard described Wednesday as a "confined space incident" aboard a barge moored in southeast Alaska last weekend. In:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine are holding a briefing for reporters Thursday on the latest developments in the Iran war, their first since Israel carried out strikes killing Iran's top security chief Ali Larijani and Esmail Khatib, its intelligence minister.
The Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman won a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Ohio sheriff's deputies who sued him over music videos in which he used home security footage to mock their raid of his home. In:
A lawyer who worked closely with Jeffrey Epstein for decades before becoming an executor of his estate will be questioned Thursday by the House Oversight Committee. In:
A group of House Democrats walked out of a closed-door briefing with Attorney General Pam Bondi on the Jeffrey Epstein probe late Wednesday, as tensions over the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein case continue to simmer. In:
The FBI is investigating former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent in connection with alleged leaks of classified information, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell CBS News.
Illinois' Democratic primary elections on Tuesday received a lot of attention, and not always for the candidates on the ballot. The primary for the open seat left by retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, had served as a test for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's political clout ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. jumped on Wednesday, as the Iran war continues to take a toll on energy infrastructure in the Middle East and slow shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. In:
Joe Kent, who resigned Tuesday as National Counterterrorism Center director, has been a stalwart Trump supporter, backing him since his 2016 campaign, through his 2020 election defeat, the Jan. 6 riots, as well as during his own conservative media advocacy and two failed congressional bids. In:
Nancy Guthrie has been missing for 45 days, and with the latest update in the case being of little use to authorities, one expert tells CBS News the extended timeline means it "becomes much harder to keep the investigation going." In:
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon accused a top Justice Department official of blocking the release of a document related to a secret investigation of drug trafficking and prostitution by Jeffrey Epstein. In: