You Can Shop at Costco Without a Membership. Here’s Why You Shouldn’t

On Sept. 1, Costco raised the annual cost of its basic membership from $60 to $65, while the Executive membership fee rose from $120 to $130. These fee hikes aren’t so substantial when you break them down on a monthly basis, but they may be prompting some members to think about canceling and find other ways to shop at Costco instead.

You should know that it’s possible to shop at Costco without paying for a membership. First of all, anyone can place an order on Costco.com. And Costco still allows paying members to bring a guest with them to its warehouse club stores. So if you have a friend, neighbor, or family member you can shop with, you can save yourself the $65 or $130 a membership might otherwise cost.

But while you can get away with avoiding Costco’s membership fee, paying could actually work to your advantage. Here are a few reasons why.

1. Online orders cost more

While you can place orders on Costco.com without a membership, you’ll pay more. Costco imposes a 5% surcharge on non-member orders. The reason, per Costco, is “Our ability to offer low prices on brand-name items is due in large part to our membership program, which is designed to reward members for their loyalty.”

If you only place the occasional order on Costco.com, then you may actually be saving money by not paying the membership fee. But if you order $2,000 worth of Costco products per year, your total surcharge will amount to $100. That’s $35 more than the cost of a basic membership.

2. You’ll get access to Costco’s entire inventory

Much of Costco’s inventory is available to non-members online, but certain items are designated as members-only. This means that if you don’t pay for a membership, you won’t be able to buy them.

Often, members-only items are from desirable brands — brands you might pay a lot more for outside of Costco. In some cases, savings on a single item could cover your membership fee for the year.

3. You’ll be contributing to a better shopping experience

Costco uses its membership fee revenue to offset its operating costs. And a big part of the reason Costco is able to offer up such affordable products and services is because it doesn’t need to charge as much money on a per-item basis when it’s collecting $65 or $130 per member each year.

If you sign up for Costco and pay your way in, you’ll be contributing to the store’s ability to improve its products, services, and prices. You and your fellow shoppers can benefit big time from that in the long run.

Even though Costco has been cracking down on non-members lately by installing scanners at the front of its stores for verification and limiting food court access to members only, it’s possible to get into the store with someone else. And you can easily shop online as a non-member, too. But for the reasons above, it could pay to fork over the $65 or $130 and join Costco. You may find that it leads to big savings and a better experience.

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You Can Shop at Costco Without a Membership. Here’s Why You Shouldn’t was originally published by The Motley Fool