According to some Instagram comments from Costco staff, customers often ask employees for price checks, and scanners save them from interruption. One user also commented that marked-down prices aren’t always properly updated on signage, so they’ll sometimes price-check all of their items to see if they’re getting a deal.
In large stores like Costco, items also end up abandoned in random aisles. Most of the warehouses are about 160,000 square feet, except for the world’s smallest Costco, which clocks in at a mere 76,696 square feet. Without intimate knowledge of exactly where an item came from, a customer can use the price scanner to save some steps trying to find the posted price.
The trouble with the scanner is its accessibility. It’s a static box on the wall that customers must hold items up to; there’s no detachable hand scanner, and the reader is well above cart level. As one Instagram commenter noted, “Sure [it’s] cool, til you have to lift that ish back out of the cart when you know it took jesus and all 12 of his disciples to get it in there, but okay Costco, [y’all] have fun!” Hopefully, the new app updates will cover this need, and installed scanners will merely be a backup. Until these updates are rolled out, though, the scanners are exciting news for shoppers who, as one commenter said, have “been DREAMING of this.”