Costco members, you should feel safe: the world’s most beloved warehouse club is looking out for you. In the event that a thief steals your membership card, happens to have the same last name as you, and makes Costco purchases while you stand a few feet away, Costco has got you covered. Which is to say that Adam’s local store freaked out on his latest visit when his wife forgot her Costco card and used his, but paid with her debit card attached to their joint bank account.

At the checkout register, I gave the cashier my Costco card (my wife had forgotten hers), while my wife paid with her debit card (we have a joint account).

Major no-no. The cashier stopped everything tell us that the person whose membership card is swiped must be the same person to pay (even though we are both under the same Costco membership).

The cashier then called a manager to verify my wife’s date of birth, drivers license number, address, and date we had opened our Costco membership.

I was pretty angry about this treatment and asked why the h*** this was necessary? We have the same last name, same Costco membership, joint account…etc.

I was told by the manager that they needed to make sure that my wife had not stolen the membership card (yes, the same one that has my name and picture on it) to pay for our Costco groceries.

Perhaps, we thought, Adam and his wife have different last names. For all Costco knows, they’re strangers. Nope. Mrs. Adam took Adam’s last name. While it still doesn’t explain why Adam didn’t just whip out his own debit card, it’s sort of comforting to know that the privilege of shopping at Costco is so tightly controlled. Well, it would be if I had a Costco nearby and a membership.

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