Costco speeds up checkout with app cards and employee pre-scan technology

Costco is shifting more of checkout from manual scanning at the register to a mix of app-based membership verification and employee pre-scan, a change that could shorten lines while adding new work for front-end staff. The company said its pilot pay stations handled pre-scanned orders in about eight seconds on average, and it said early results brought smoother traffic flow and “great member feedback.” For workers, the big change was not the digital card itself but the labor behind it: helping members open the app, verify membership, explain payment limits, and keep exits moving without losing control of shrink.

Costco laid out the direction on its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call on March 5, 2026, when chief executive Ron Vachris and chief financial officer Gary Millerchip said mobile wallet enhancements, pharmacy pay-ahead options, and employee pre-scan technology were improving checkout speed and employee productivity. That matters in a company with more than 800 warehouses worldwide and more than 600 in the United States, where even a few seconds per transaction can add up fast. Costco has tried self-checkout before, but that earlier experiment did not gain traction. This round is different because it keeps employees in the flow instead of trying to push them out of it.

The company’s Digital Membership Card is available through the Costco Mobile App and lets members view their 2% reward balance on a phone. Costco Customer Service says the card requires an active membership, works on supported iOS or Android phones, does not work on tablets, and is tied to a specific Costco.com account. On shared household memberships, each person generally needs a separate Costco.com account to use a digital card on a personal device. That means front-end assistants are likely to spend more time fielding the same old friction points in a new form: forgotten logins, unsupported devices, and members who have not set up the app before they reach the register.

The payment side brings its own limits. Costco says the Digital Membership Card payment feature currently works only with the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, excludes the food court, and can be used without an internet connection after setup, though internet is needed to add the payment card. Costco Wallet can hold one saved payment method and Costco Shop Card funds, with a $10,000 stored-value cap and a $10,000 daily load limit. The company raised membership fees effective September 1, 2024, lifting Gold Star and Business memberships from $60 to $65 and Executive memberships from $120 to $130, underscoring how tightly it has paired operational changes with its broader price-value model. The new checkout system is designed to make the warehouse feel faster, but it also makes the human work more technical, more explanatory, and harder to fake.