You love Costco—until you hit the checkout line. We’ve all been there: the cart is overflowing, the line stretches into the frozen food aisle, and the “bulk-buy regret” starts to set in.
Now, imagine walking up, tapping your membership card, and paying in seconds—all without unloading a single heavy crate of seltzer onto a conveyor belt. Costco is officially testing a way to make that a reality.
Instead of waiting your turn and then unloading your entire cart like you’re prepping for a mini warehouse audit, the process starts earlier. While you’re still in line, an employee scans everything in your cart.
So by the time you finally reach the front, your items are already in the system and your total is ready. All you do is scan your membership and pay.
But you’re still not skipping the line (yet)
Before you get too excited, this isn’t full “walk in, walk out” shopping.
Unlike Sam’s Club, where you can scan items as you shop and leave without stopping, Costco still makes you go through a checkout point. The main goal is to speed up the checkout time, not the entire shopping process.
So yes, the bottleneck is not entirely gone. But once you reach the front, it moves way faster.
Why Costco is doing this now
Costco has always been great at pricing and bulk value. Speed? Not so much.
But competitors have been moving faster. Sam’s Club already lets customers scan items while shopping and pay directly in the app. This way, traditional checkout is skipped entirely.
Costco’s move feels like a direct response to its competition as well as to shoppers’ complaints about the long checkout lines that have always been part of the experience at the retailer’s.
Executives say early tests are already improving how quickly people move through stores.
Right now, it’s only being tested in select locations, including stores in places like Connecticut. No official word yet on when it will roll out everywhere, but if it works the way it’s supposed to, it is hard to imagine Costco not expanding it.
Because once people experience a faster checkout, there’s no going back really.
Sources: The Darien Times, Fox Business