Shortly after Sam’s Club closed, the administration of the Costco on Dimond enforced a new rule in order to prevent thefts.

Costco started to check membership cards at the entrance to make sure that only members are entering the building.

Even though this was enforced a couple of months after Sam’s Club closed, this new rule has nothing to do with Sam’s Club.

This rule is to prevent thefts by allowing only members into the building.

Costco manager Alfred Johnson said, “By doing this, Costco eliminates the extra traffic of nonmembers, which reduces the chances of theft.”

Members most likely aren’t going to steal as they spend the money to become a member, therefore, the amounts of thefts should be less after this new rule.

Johnson said, “By making sure that only members enter, we have eliminated a good amount of theft.”
With this new rule being enforced, it has become a huge inconvenience for Dimond High School students to go to Costco as they must either have a membership or they must enter with a Costco member.

“To be a Costco member you must be 18 or older,” said Johnson.

The Dimond High School students used to find Costco as a close by and cheap fast food location, but after the new rule many students stopped going there as it has become more inconvenient to enter.

With the reduction of the number of high school students going to Costco, most members expect that there is less business during lunch time anymore.

Statistics show the opposite.

Johnson said, “After the new rule, we did have less high school students show up for lunch but we now have different people coming to Costco for lunch as it isn’t as busy as it used to be.”

Alfred explained that people used to not come to Costco for lunch because of how busy it was, but now that there is less traffic those people started to show up at Costco to have some lunch.

This new rule did not affect the amount of business at Costco during lunch time. In fact, it stayed about the same.

Alfred said, “There is about 50 percent less high school students that show up to lunch after the new rule, but this did not affect the amount of business we have as those high school students were replaced with other customers.”

This rule did make it a huge inconvenience for many high school students as they do not have the luxury of a cheap lunch anymore unless they have a member with them.

Dimond Senior Burcu Turker said, “It has become more inconvenient to go to Costco as I can not just walk in anymore and grab some lunch. I have to have a member with me who is usually my mom and she can not always make it to enter me into Costco as she has errands to run.”

Turker used to go out to Costco on occasions, but with this new rule she has completely stopped going to Costco as it is too much of a hassle for her.

Turker said, “They should have students show their student identification card and allow students to go into Costco only during lunch time.”

She thinks that this could be a solution to the huge inconvenience Costco has created for many Dimond High School students.

Dimond Senior Alex Morgan is in agreement with Turker that it has created a huge inconvenience for students.

Morgan said, “I used to go last year not too often, but now I don’t go at all because I can’t even get in anymore. Costco used to be a great place to go to for lunch. It is too bad that students can not go anymore.”