CENTERVILLE — Longtime Costco customer Lyronda Jackson was insulted Wednesday when an employee at the retailer’s Centerville store claimed Jackson’s face did not match the face on the back of her membership card.
Costco nationwide recently announced a new policy that requires employees to check store membership ID cards against the person using them, especially on self-check records, because non-members have been using other people’s cards.
On Wednesday night, Jackson recounted her experience with NewsCenter 7 investigative reporter John BEdel. It all started with a random questioning of self-examination records, Jackson said, and tensions escalated from there.
The young lady just said, ‘I’m going to need to check your card. We do facial recognition. It’s our new policy. I said, yeah, I heard about it.”
So, the Inglewood woman said she gave the employee her membership card — complete with a color photo of Jackson on the back.
She said, “Well, that’s not you.” “”
“And I said, ‘He’s saying Lronda Jackson. That’s me.’ And she said, ‘No, I’m saying this picture is not the person I’m looking at.’”
“So I was offended. So I was like, Excuse me?”
“I said, ‘Look, that’s me, that’s my card.’ Then as my voice started to get louder, she said, ‘Well, I’m sorry, it’s the lighting in the shop and I probably don’t have good eyes today.’”
Jackson finished scanning, paid for her things, and left. She returned after a while to speak with the assistant manager who offered his apologies. Jackson said the assistant manager reverted it to a “management matter”.
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She said she was told someone from the corporate office would call her on Thursday. News Center 7’s request for comment from Costco corporate officials has so far gone unanswered.
The employee never asked for a second ID, Jackson said, which would have settled the issue.
The membership model is critical to Costco’s business, according to CNN. Fees help increase the company’s profits and offset expenses, allowing Costco to keep its prices low. Costco is known for offering some of the lowest prices in the retail industry. Annual membership fees range from $60 to $120. Costco has such a high level of customer loyalty that it claims a global membership renewal rate of 90 percent at the end of 2022. That fee pulled $4.2 billion out of the $223 billion in retail sales in fiscal 2022.
Costco operates nearly 900 warehouses worldwide, more than half of which are in the United States, The Washington Post reports. As of May, Costco listed more than 124 million cardholders.
Jackson said she also shared her experience on her Facebook page, which is called “Black Women Who Love Costco.”
“You’d be surprised how many people this happened to,” Jackson said.
What do you want on the other side of what happened?
“I want to change the policy. Find another way. Or just ask everyone else.” [membership] Card and ID. Or close the self-check.
She said no one checked on her when she was pumping gas at the Centerville Costco. “Nobody was asking is she really getting that gas,” she said.
“If the concern is people shopping at Costco who are not supposed to be anything more than pleasing customers, then everyone shows ID and everyone shows their membership card. Don’t pick and choose. [customers to confront] And don’t pick cherries [customers to confront]Jackson said.
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