How Costco's Checkout Process May Be Changing In 2026

Plenty of people love Costco for its good deals on bulk buys, but the entire shopping experience is not necessarily a pleasure. In some ways, Costco is a victim of its own popularity, as some of the least enjoyable aspects of shopping there are due to the sheer number of customers. But the chain is currently piloting a new program at select stores that could reduce your time at checkout to mere seconds.

According to the transcript of an earnings call, Costco is piloting automated pay stations at select stores. The stations work in tandem with the recent debut of employee pre-scans, where workers scan the items in your cart as you wait in line. In testing, automated pay stations are reducing transaction times to an average of 8 seconds.

It sounds minor, but the benefits appear to add up. The company attests that early test results show this new checkout method improving the overall traffic flow in stores and that customers are enthusiastic about it.

The checkout process has long been a weight around the neck of an otherwise excellent shopping experience. Things can also be made worse by rookies who make obnoxious Costco shopping mistakes, like trying to check out without a membership. Together with employee pre-scans, automated pay stations can help filter these unfortunate shoppers out faster and clear the way for people who know what they're doing.

It's unclear if automated pay stations will eliminate the need to show your membership card upon payment, though an 8-second transaction time suggests it might be possible. Regardless, always be sure to have your Costco membership card handy just in case.

Hopefully, the trial results of Costco's automated pay stations can be replicated at scale across the entire company. Anything that reasonably improves the process of actually leaving with your purchases would be a welcome improvement on standing in line for nearly as much time as you spent shopping. But it probably won't do anything to stop Saturday and Sunday from being the worst days of the week to shop at Costco.