Photo above - Crash barriers? Check! Only one way in or out? Check! Security staff at the door? Check! Welcome to our store - please show your $65 membership ID before entering.

How much do stores lose to shoplifting annually? Nobody knows for sure, but estimates start at around $50 billion, and go up from there (see link below).

Whether you – as a customer – personally feel inconvenienced by shoplifting doesn’t so much depend on where you live. It's true that LA and San Francisco police have about a 2 hour response time to shoplifting calls – but whether your local supermarket or department store closed permanently because they couldn’t stop the shoplifting losses. If you need to drive a half hour, or make 2 bus changes, it's a bummer. This is how “food deserts” are created. It’s not the evil landlords and mall owners.

Costco – and other big box/warehouse stores – say they’ve found the solution. And you’re not going to like it, either.

“Paid memberships with photo ID member card. Just one way in and one way out of the store. Security people to keep non-members out, and to check the cash register receipt of anyone trying to leave.”

If you already have a Costco or BJs membership, you’re probably nodding your head, and are annoyed. My local BJs is in the vanguard. They have steel and concrete crash barriers at the entrance, to deflect someone from ramming a stolen truck through the door overnight. Two security people – for entrance and exit - during business hours. Don’t bring your own reuseable shopping bags. That REALLY pisses the exit guards off, and they will pull EVERYTHING out of your bags, and check them off your receipt, one by one, before you can finally trundle off to your car.

This is so annoying, I cancelled my membership in December, saving $65 a year. BJs’ prices are no longer that much lower than the average supermarket. I’m not going to buy a 55 inch TV from BJ’s anyway. I’d order that online - I still have an Amazon prime membership. My TV will be delivered faster than going through the store checkout line.

BJ’s adds insult to injury by refusing to staff human beings at their cash registers. It’s mostly self- checkout now. You’d think this would be a big opportunity for shoplifting, but don’t forget the guys at the door. In some locations there are armed police. During covid 19 they had an entire squad of goons in black tee shirts with the word "guard". Apparently weightlifters and martial arts people

BJ’s knows customers aren't happy. Management is trying to sweeten the deal. Experimenting with things like gas pumps which are a dime less per gallon than the station 2 blocks away. LP gas refilling/exchange. A gauntlet of home improvement and cellular salespeople near the entrance and exit. Wait – that’s not a solution. No I don’t want my bathroom remodeled – I’m a renter. Yes I’m already on the AT&T plan.

What Costco and BJ’s apparently ARENT experimenting with is keeping the proof of ID membership card but ditching the annual fee. I refuse to spend $60 to stand in a checkout line longer than the one at my local Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

The future is now. We need positive picture ID just to shop. But not to vote. Welcome to the greatest nation in the free world.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Costco cracks the shoplifting crisis that's shutting Walmart and Target stores

economic impact

The future of shopping in America: “We’re not going to let just anyone wander in off the street” (actual quote)