Surprisingly (for the Internet, at least), most folks with upvoted comments on the Reddit thread seem to be on board with this move from Costco. In general, shoppers seem more than willing to take the extra 30 seconds or so to scan their cards at the door if it helps deter checkout issues, membership fraud, and shoplifting. Many people know that Costco makes most of its money from memberships, not product sales, and they hope that implementing this will help keep the membership fee stable at $60 for a little longer.
There is some concern that this system will cause even more of a bottleneck at the entrance, with unprepared shoppers fumbling for their cards. A few Redditors consider the extra step an affront, but other commenters in the thread have quickly shot this reaction down.
Costco already usually has employees standing at the entrance checking for membership cards; it shouldn’t take that much longer (in theory) to scan them. Costco also requires receipt checks at the exit, which has been standard Costco practice since its inception. Moreover, according to customers from countries like Iceland, the U.K., and Japan posting on the thread, it appears that international Costco locations have been scanning cards at the door for a while. They’ve managed to figure it out; perhaps there’s hope for American Costcos, too.