Why Costco Shoppers Are Complaining About Self-Checkout

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The process of checking out at Costco can be frustrating — even if you’re doing it yourself. Read on to learn more. 

Shopping at Costco has the potential to be a very positive experience. Not only might you reap a ton of savings in the course of buying groceries and household essentials, but you might also come across new, interesting products that enhance your life. And it’s hard to argue the fact that free food samples make for a more pleasant shopping trip.

But if there’s one aspect of the Costco shopping experience that may be less than ideal, it’s the process of checking out. If you go to Costco at a time when the store isn’t crowded, you may be able to walk up to a checkout aisle, hand over your cash or credit card, and be on your way fairly quickly. But if you’re shopping at Costco on a weekend or during periods when the store tends to be busy (say, the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas), you risk ending up in a massive checkout line that takes a long time to get through.

To address this issue, Costco has introduced self-checkout lanes in some of its warehouse club stores. The goal is to move the checkout process along and prevent major bottlenecks.

But Costco members seem to have mixed reviews about the self-checkout lanes. And a big reason for their discontent boils down to the fact that these self-checkout aisles seem to lack one key feature.

Where are all of the hand scanners?

Costco members are used to buying bulk, heavy items that are hard to lift. And the good news is that when you’re checking out at a regular aisle, you can just leave those heavy items in your shopping cart. A Costco employee will walk over with a hand scanner to record their price.

But Cheapism recently reported that Costco members are getting annoyed with the self-checkout process. And one big reason is that many of the chain’s self-checkout lanes do not have hand scanners for customers to use. That could make the process of checking out solo quite difficult.

Even if your local Costco store does have hand scanners at the self-checkout lanes, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to use them without a hassle. There have been reports of Costco employees telling customers they can’t use the hand scanners for different items, or that the hand scanners at the self-checkout lanes are only for employees to use.

The latter seems really counterintuitive. What’s the point of self-checkout if it requires the help of an employee?

Should you go the self-checkout route at Costco?

You may find that self-checkout gets you in and out of Costco more quickly. But if your local store doesn’t have hand scanners in those lanes, then you may be wasting your time.

As such, if your goal is to minimize the amount of time you spend checking out at Costco, you may want to commit to shopping during off hours. If your work schedule is flexible, go first thing in the morning when the store opens, or go later in the evening when most people are probably relaxing in front of the TV.

And also, avoid weekend shopping trips at all costs. That way, if you have to wait in a line for a Costco employee to ring you up, your wait should at least be pretty minimal.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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