If you’ve walked into a Costco recently and felt like something was a little different, you’re not imagining it. The warehouse giant is in the middle of some real, noticeable shifts in how it operates — and whether you’re a die-hard member who goes twice a week or someone who shows up once a month to grab toilet paper and a rotisserie chicken, these changes are going to hit you one way or another.
I’m not talking about minor stuff like a new flavor of Kirkland trail mix showing up on the shelf. These are operational changes — things that affect how you check out, how you order food, and whether there’s a new warehouse opening closer to your house. Let’s get into it.
The Food Court Is Getting a Bouncer (Sort Of)
This one has been brewing for a while, but it’s finally rolling out across the country in a serious way. Costco is installing membership card scanners at food court kiosks. That means before you can order that legendary $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, you need to scan your membership card. No card, no food.
Now, technically Costco has had a “members only” food court policy since 2024. But let’s be honest — enforcement was spotty at best. If your Costco had an outdoor food court (plenty of locations in California, Arizona, and other warm-weather states do), pretty much anyone could walk up and order. Indoor food courts weren’t much better. You’d just waltz past the entrance and head straight to the food court without anyone stopping you.
Those days are over. The new system works the same way the self-order kiosks at places like McDonald’s or Panera do, except there’s an extra step where you tap or scan your membership card before the ordering screen even activates. No membership, no touchscreen access. It’s that simple.
Some members spotted these scanners sitting inactive at their local stores as early as late 2025, but they’re going live now at locations across the country. Reddit users in California have reported that the process is quick and painless — you scan, you order, you eat. No big drama.
Here’s the part that actually matters to paying members: there’s a real upside to this change beyond just keeping freeloaders out. If you’re an Executive Member paying $130 a year, your food court purchases may now count toward your annual 2% cash back reward. Previously, food court spending didn’t factor into that calculation at all. So if your family drops $15-$20 at the food court every visit (and with pizza, hot dogs, chicken bakes, and those açaí bowls, it adds up fast), that’s real money trickling back to you over the course of a year.
The practical takeaway? Make sure you have your membership card — or the Costco app with your digital card — ready before you get in the food court line. If you’ve been letting your cousin or your neighbor borrow your card to grab a slice, that loophole is closing fast.
Checkout Is Getting Faster (Finally)
Let me just say what we’re all thinking: checkout at Costco has always been a pain. You fill a flatbed cart with 47 items, you wait in a line that wraps around the clothing section, and then you have to unload everything onto the belt, watch it get scanned, and reload it all back into your cart. It’s a workout. On a Saturday afternoon, it can easily add 20-30 minutes to your trip.
Costco is attacking this problem from two angles in 2026, and both are already being tested at select locations.
The first is a prescan system. Here’s how it works: while you’re standing in line, a Costco employee with a handheld scanner walks up to your cart and scans your items right there. By the time you reach the register, most or all of your stuff is already rung up. You just pay and go. Early testing has shown this can speed up checkout by as much as 20%. If your typical Saturday Costco run involves a 15-minute wait at checkout, that could shave off a solid chunk of time.
This works best for small to medium carts. If you’ve got a flatbed loaded with a patio set, a 50-pound bag of dog food, and a case of wine, the prescan employee probably isn’t going to handle all of that while you’re standing in line. But for your average weekly grocery haul? It’s a noticeable improvement.
The second change is scan-and-go technology, similar to what Sam’s Club has been doing for years. If you’ve ever used the Sam’s Club app to scan items as you shop and then just walk out after paying on your phone, you know how convenient this is. Costco is testing its own version now. Details are still limited on exactly how Costco’s implementation will work, but the direction is clear — they want to reduce the time you spend standing around waiting to hand someone money.
For those who prefer self-checkout, Costco is also adding more self-checkout kiosks at many locations. Between prescan, scan-and-go, and additional self-checkout lanes, the goal is obvious: get you out the door faster so more people can cycle through the store.
One tip that’s worked for me for years: if your Costco opens at 10 a.m. (or 9 a.m. for Executive Members at participating locations), go within the first hour. The checkout lines are a fraction of what they’ll be by noon. Combine early arrival with these new prescan and scan-and-go options, and you might actually enjoy a Costco trip on a weekend. Wild concept, I know.
Costco Is Opening 35 New Warehouses (and a Standalone Gas Station)
This is the change that could affect where you shop, how far you drive, and how crowded your local store feels. CEO Ron Vachris announced a target of 35 new warehouses for the company’s 2026 fiscal year, which is a huge jump from the 24 new locations opened in 2025.
Some of these are already open. A new location in Liberty Hill, Texas opened on March 11, 2026, with a 152,000-square-foot warehouse, gas station, pharmacy, optical department, tire center, and food court. Before that, residents had to drive nine miles to the nearest Costco. St. George, Utah got its second Costco on March 13, with a fuel center that has 40 pumping positions. A new warehouse in North Visalia, California is set for April 2026.
But here’s the detail that not enough people are talking about: five of those 35 new stores are relocations, not brand-new markets. Costco is taking high-volume stores that have outgrown their current spaces and moving them to larger properties with bigger parking lots and expanded gas stations. The old buildings? Some of those are being converted into Costco Business Centers, which cater to restaurants, offices, and small businesses with different inventory and earlier hours.
And then there’s the standalone gas station coming to Mission Viejo, California. This is a first for Costco — a 40-pump gas station with no attached warehouse. You still need a membership to use it, but you won’t have to deal with warehouse traffic just to fill your tank. If this pilot works, expect to see more of these pop up in areas where Costco wants to offer fuel but doesn’t have room (or zoning approval) for a full warehouse.
For context, Costco gas is typically $0.20 to $0.40 cheaper per gallon than nearby stations. If you drive a truck or SUV and fill up a 20-gallon tank every week, that’s $4 to $8 in savings per fill-up, or roughly $200 to $400 per year. That alone covers the cost of a basic $65 membership almost four times over. And if you have the Costco Anywhere Visa Card from Citi, you’re now getting 5% back on gas purchases at Costco pumps (up from 4%), which stacks nicely on top of those already low prices.
A Few Smaller Changes Worth Knowing About
Beyond the big three, there are a handful of smaller updates that might affect your next trip.
Costco’s pharmacy is partnering with a pharmacy benefit manager called Navitus to offer transparent drug pricing. If your insurance works with Navitus, you’ll see exactly what a medication costs plus a straightforward markup — no weird rebates or hidden fees. Prescription costs are one of those things that feel intentionally confusing, so any move toward clarity is welcome.
The Kirkland Signature brand is expanding with more products and more local sourcing. This is partly a tariff-avoidance strategy and partly a way to keep prices low. Costco launched 45 new Kirkland products in the last few months of 2025 alone, including those caramelized blueberry cheesecake croissants that went viral online. More are coming in 2026.
The Costco app is also getting upgrades, including the ability to order custom bakery cakes and catering digitally instead of filling out paper forms at the store and waiting 24-48 hours. If you’ve ever ordered a birthday cake from Costco (half-sheet for around $22 — still one of the best deals in the bakery world), you know the old process was clunky. This fixes that.
Costco employees are also getting a raise — hourly rates going up by $1 for top-scale workers, bringing the maximum to $31.90 per hour in 2026. This matters to you as a shopper because better-paid employees tend to stick around longer, which means more experienced staff on the floor. It’s part of why Costco’s service has always been a cut above most warehouse retailers.
What This Means for Your Wallet
None of these changes raise your membership fee. The $65 basic and $130 Executive rates have stayed the same since the 2024 increase. What’s changing is the value you get for that price — faster checkout, food court rewards for Executive Members, better app features, more locations, cheaper prescriptions, and expanding Kirkland options that keep store-brand prices competitive against name brands at Walmart or Target.
If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading to Executive, the food court rewards perk alone might tip the scales — especially if you’re already spending $3,000+ per year at Costco, which is where the 2% cash back starts to offset the higher membership cost. Do the math for your own spending habits before you upgrade, but for a lot of families, it now makes more sense than it did six months ago.
The bottom line on all of this is pretty straightforward: Costco is spending money to make your experience less annoying and more rewarding. Whether that’s shorter checkout lines, a food court that isn’t packed with non-members, or a new warehouse 10 minutes from your house instead of 30 — these are practical improvements that affect real shopping trips, not just corporate talking points on an earnings call.
