Costco is great for scoring bulk bargains on all your home and grocery necessities, and enjoying your favorite food court items, but it’s not perfect. Not only does Costco not offer price matching, but a trip to one of its members-only warehouses can be as stressful and time-consuming as it is rewarding. During peak hours, long lines at checkout can trail all the way back to the frozen foods aisles, leaving Costco shoppers exhausted once they arrive back home. If Costco would take a page from competing bulk retailer Sam’s Club’s book and implement a Scan & Go feature, much of this tedious waiting around could be prevented.
Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go is an in-app feature that allows shoppers to scan items they want to buy with the mere touch of a button on their phones. For example, if you see a container of your favorite high-protein yogurt and want to purchase it, just point your phone’s camera (with app open) at the container’s barcode, and tap the button indicating you want to add it to your cart. When you’re all finished shopping, you just pay in the app and receive an exit code that you show to the door associate on your way out.
Now that we know the basics of a scan-to-shop set-up, let’s imagine what shopping at Costco would be like if the store had its own version of the feature. Here’s the good and the bad, based on our and others’ experiences using Scan & Go at Sam’s Club.
What shopping at Costco would be like if it had a Scan & Go feature
Here’s a hypothetical Costco shopping trip scenario for you: List in hand, you walk through Costco’s front doors ready to score some great deals. It’s a busy day, complete with the usual Costco crowd, but there are significantly fewer checkout registers open — a potential result of the store encouraging shoppers to use Scan & Go. The few that are open are each servicing a line so long you can’t tell where it starts. (Part of the cause of those slow lines is Costco members not having their membership cards ready at checkout.) Since you’re using Scan & Go, though, none of this is concerning. You connect to Costco’s Wi-Fi — a must if your store’s cell reception is iffy — open the store’s app, tap Scan & Go, and set off.
While shopping, you’re able to see exactly how much you’re spending in the app. Maybe you’re the type of shopper to be surprised by your receipt’s total after a trip to a huge store like Costco, where it’s way too easy to grab off-list items on a whim (like that King of Kentucky bourbon deal the wholesale club offered in early 2025). Seeing the running tally helps you make more informed choices about your purchases.
When done, you pay for your order in the app, get your exit code ready to show at the door, and wheel your haul past the long lines of Costco members who chose the traditional shopping route. Some stare at you with what you can only assume to be envy. You’ll be en route home in minutes; they’ve got another 20 minutes or so of waiting in line. So, how does shopping at Costco with Scan & Go sound to you?
