Costco Shoppers Are Arguing Over a New Rule Some Call Excessive

It started with a simple announcement on Instagram. Then came the Reddit threads, the angry Facebook posts, the canceled memberships, and the manager escorting frustrated shoppers away from the warehouse doors. Costco, a retailer that has long prided itself on near-universal loyalty and a kind of shopping-club camaraderie, has found itself at the center of a surprisingly heated debate. The argument? Not over prices. Not over the famous $4.99 rotisserie chicken. Over hours.

Something about being told you can’t walk through those big warehouse doors at a certain time hits differently than a price hike ever could. It feels personal. Let’s dive in.

The “VIP Hour” That Divided a Nation of Bulk Shoppers

Not everyone expected a change to store opening hours to spark this much outrage. Costco’s new policy granting Executive members early access to its stores, a perk dubbed the “VIP hour,” is now being strictly enforced nationwide following the end of a grace period on August 31, 2025. The idea is simple on the surface: if you pay more, you get in earlier.

This “VIP hour” allows only Executive members to shop from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays and from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturdays. Everyone else, regardless of how long they’ve been loyal Costco shoppers, has to wait outside. It directly affects all other members by making them wait until the “VIP hour” is over before they can start shopping, meaning those with cheaper memberships must now wait until the exclusive members have had their pick before they are allowed through the doors.

The warehouse store announced that its Executive-level members would be able to shop as early as 9 a.m. in its U.S. warehouses starting June 30, 2025, and the news left customers with a lot of questions and some strong feelings. Honestly, for a brand built on the idea that everyone inside those walls is part of the same club, dividing shoppers into tiers felt, to many, like a betrayal of the whole concept.

Who Gets In Early and Who Gets Left Out

Costco closed out its fiscal year with 81 million paying members, 38.7 million of which were Executive cardholders, meaning tens of millions of Gold Star members cannot shop in the company’s U.S. warehouses during these special hours. That’s a massive number of people standing outside, waiting their turn.

Some customers are unhappy about the change, saying the company is favoring its higher-paying members and alienating the rest. A standard Gold Star membership is $65 per year, while an Executive membership is $130 per year. That’s double the price. For many shoppers on tighter budgets, that extra $65 simply isn’t an option right now.

With inflation still squeezing household budgets, bulk shopping remains popular. A LendingTree analysis found that bulk purchases can reduce costs by an average of 27% across 30 everyday products, including essentials such as paper towels, bottled water and batteries. The irony here is painful. People are shopping at Costco specifically to save money, and now they’re being nudged toward spending more just to get through the door on time.

The Backlash Was Immediate and Very Loud

Social media lit up fast. On Costco’s Instagram post announcing the change, one commenter wrote, “It should be for all members,” while another expressed concern for Costco employees, writing, “They are understaffed and now will be rushed to open an hour earlier.” Workers on the frontlines weren’t exactly thrilled either.

Since the rule became official on September 1, customers without an Executive Membership are regularly being denied entry at warehouses when they try to shop before the designated hours. Over on Reddit, shoppers are sharing stories, with one user describing a scene: “Day one at 9:55 a.m., I watched them turning people away. One guy got lippy and the manager escorted him away from the doors.”

Some on social media feel like Costco is making a “cash grab” and “discriminating against regular members.” Others took a more darkly comedic approach. One commenter wrote, “Really tired of shopping with all the poors,” while another declared, “I’ll be expecting mimosas and passed hors d’oeuvres.” Some humor, sure, but the frustration underneath it was real.

The Entry Scanner Rule That Came Before All of This

Here’s the thing: the early-hours controversy didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s part of a broader wave of enforcement changes Costco has been rolling out since 2024. In August 2024, Costco announced plans to begin using scanning devices at the entrance of all of its locations. Members would be required to scan their membership card or a digital QR code upon entry, and may have to show valid identification if their membership card doesn’t have a photo on it.

For years, some consumers had been sneaking around the additional $65 fee by sharing cards with friends to shop or to get the famed $1.50 hot dog at the food court. Costco had enough and started to bring in a membership-scanning policy to eliminate the sharing and keep things fair for those who pay to shop.

Some customers were concerned this would slow down entry to the store, especially during prime shopping times, and employees at the door were taking the blowback, according to a Reddit post. Think about it like airport security: most people understand why it exists, but nobody enjoys it when the line stretches around the block and you’re already running late.

The Food Court Is Members-Only Now Too

If the scanner rule felt like a boundary, the food court crackdown felt deeply personal to many shoppers. As early as 2020, some Costco locations started posting signs that food courts were for members only, and in 2024, Costco officially started cracking down on food court access for non-members. The iconic $1.50 hot dog? Members only.

Costco addressed the matter directly: “We don’t feel it’s right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” the company said in a statement reported by Audacy.com. That’s a fair argument, logically. Costco’s CFO Richard Galanti explained the challenge: “One of the challenges is that some of the food courts have gotten so busy, particularly if it’s near some office buildings or construction sites. We were getting member complaints.”

Costco’s decision may push consumers looking to join a warehouse club toward its biggest competitor, Sam’s Club. Unlike Costco, Sam’s Club does allow non-members to eat at its cafes. Between that and the fact that Sam’s Club offers lower membership prices, shoppers may be more likely to give the Walmart-owned warehouse club a go. It’s a genuine competitive risk that Costco seems willing to accept.

The Membership Fee Hike That Started It All

Underneath all these rule changes is a financial story that most casual shoppers probably haven’t been tracking. No change has been more pronounced over the last year than Costco’s decision to increase its annual membership fees. Beginning on September 1, 2024, Gold Star and Business members saw their annual membership fee rise from $60 to $65, while Executive cardholders had their yearly fee jump from $120 to $130.

This was a seemingly long overdue fee increase, with the last one occurring in 2017. That’s seven years of holding the line. The fee increases impacted around 52 million memberships, a little over half of which are Executive. Still, most shoppers barely blinked. The loyalty numbers are almost hard to believe.

Costco boasted a membership renewal rate in the U.S. of about 92% and a global renewal rate of around 90% at the end of fiscal 2025, according to its report. That is an extraordinary number in any industry. In fiscal 2024, Costco’s membership fee revenue reached $4.8 billion, accounting for about 65% of the company’s net income in the year. So yes, the membership model isn’t just a nice extra. It is the whole engine.

Is the Business Strategy Actually Working Despite the Anger?

It’s hard to argue with the numbers Costco is posting. In Costco’s fourth quarter call with Wall Street analysts, CEO Ron Vachris stated: “To increase value and convenience for our members, on June 30, we added Executive Member exclusive operating hours in the morning and an additional hour on Saturday evenings for all members in our U.S. warehouses. We estimate these incremental hours have added about 1% to weekly U.S. sales since implementation.”

Even though Executive cardholders account for just under half of worldwide memberships, they were responsible for 74.2% of net sales during the fiscal fourth quarter. It’s in Costco’s financial interest to keep its highest tier of cardholders happy, even if newly implemented policies annoy entry-level members. That math is blunt and a little cold, but it’s the reality.

At the end of fiscal year 2025, business looked good for the retailer: net sales jumped 8%, and membership fee revenue climbed 10%, due to new sign-ups and fee increases. The company is countering retention challenges through auto-renewal features, more targeted digital communication, and new perks such as extended warehouse hours and a $10 monthly credit on Instacart purchases for Executive members. These benefits have already fueled stronger upgrade activity. In other words, the controversial perk is doing exactly what Costco intended: nudging Gold Star members toward upgrading.