Costco Wholesale — Attraction in Clearwater

I continue to applaud all the Costco workers who come in early so that seniors can shop before the crowds come in at the normal opening time. This is such an important policy for a company to provide, especially during a pandemic, and I hope that it continues far into the future. One of the best features of this particular Costco is that it is staffed in such a way that the lines to check out are minimized; there is always someone willing and able to assist you, indeed to completely check out your purchases, even in the "self-checkout" lanes. I am a huge fan of Costco the company, but it is their employees, and especially at their Clearwater store, who make shopping there such a pleasure.

Later edit:

I still want to give a shout-out to those Costco employees who greet us seniors and available to assist at 9 AM, an hour before regular store hours. But I do want to comment on what appears to be a new policy regarding self-checkout, which is both customer unfriendly AND seems to be incredibly cost-ineffective. Since Costco introduced self-checkout sometime last year, it has streamlined the process so that lines are short everywhere and customers seem really happy to be able to spend more time browsing and less time checking out. The process, at least at the store I visit, was more assisted-self-checkout than anything else. You step up to a self-checkout counter, a staff member with a wand scanner quickly scans everything in your cart, you pay, and you're through in 2 minutes or less. About 3 weeks ago when I visited something had changed. There was now a self-checkout traffic director, whose purpose to this day remains a mystery to me. Even though there were 3-4 registers available, and 3 staff members behind him, he stopped me, told me I couldn't self-checkout, and to use the standard lanes. No reason given. A staff member behind him shook his head, waved at me to come through anyway, and again, was scanned, paid, and out the door in about 2 minutes. But this morning was different. That very same traffic director was there, barking orders left and right, but allowed me to step up to a register. What was different was that none of the 3 staff members behind him offered to help. My guess is they wanted to, but had orders not to. So I was left with (1) taking an item out of my cart; (2) scanning it; (3) putting it on the tray next to the register; and (4) putting it back into my cart. Traffic director kept telling me I was doing something wrong when the scanner froze up, so maybe that was what the 3 staff members were there for, to assist when something went wrong. Seems like a waste of time and talent. Anyway, it took me over 10 minutes to go take those 4 steps with my 14 items, pay, and get a receipt. In other words 5 times longer. Indeed, I noticed on leaving a couple already at the exit who were originally behind me in the self-checkout, transferred over to the regular register where there were 2 staff members, one to take items from the cart and return them to the cart after the other scanned them. So apparently this store has decided to make self-checkout so difficult and time-consuming that they want people to use the regular checkout. I'm pleading with management to go back to the old way: you already have the staff there, standing there waiting for a problem. Why not utilize them as before to move customers through the line fast and efficiently. And please dump the rude traffic monitor; he's a disgrace to your store and a discredit to all the other fine people...

HORRIBLE RACIST customer service! Hostile threatening doorman- July 16 2:30pm exit gate -

My husband and I just moved to Florida and our friends took us to experience Costco for the first time- we were so excited to get our own membership but our entire visit was ruined by poor staff and management!

We were stopped at the door by an extremely hostile man demanding for my friend’s husband to be present or no entrance - no other costco has ever treated her like this, we went to this new clearwater location since we were touring the city- my family has been Sams Club members for years and we all use the same membership!

i see multiple bad reviews that this location denies spouses/family entrance to the club and it’s quite ridiculous as no others clubs have ever treated us like this- we are all paying customers filling up carts to purchase!

My friends husband, the “cardholder” drove all the way from work to meet us at the door for admission - he had to return to work while we were still shopping,

when we went to checkout, the cashier demanded for her husband again and we were so confused because no other store has ever had this policy? The manager refused to speak to her husband on the phone and demanded he come back to make the purchase-

they made us feel like we were there to steal, we were talked to in a demeaning manor and i corrected the manager twice because she kept saying we were trying to scam them??

the manager told us when he arrived she would check us out on the side table and to wait there but when we waited at the counter, no one came out and everyone was avoiding us or giving dirty looks, we ended up waiting in a long line again to check ourselves out and pay - it is SO unprofessional that management did not come out and try to resolve the issue and speak with her husband and help him add his wife to the membership-

they never tried to help us - only judge and imply we are criminals or something - many other reviewers have experienced Racism at this location and have taken their business to Sams Club, i think i will just keep my Sams Club membership too! Just read all the lowest reviews on google!

i wish the horror stopped there but it continued- when we left the store and gave the receipt at the door check, the same hostile man was there and gave the most dirty threatening look to her husband saying “oh i see what you’re really doing” again implying we were doing something wrong - criminals or something?

i will never apply for a Costco membership after witnessing such Racist, judgemental “customer service” workers - these people’s jobs is to make all members feel welcome to shop and they completely ruined our experience and lost a new member -

i recommend anyone drive to a different location, as my friend has never witnessed this behavior in the Brandon Costco -

I hope corporate can address this issue or discrimination and hateful behavior- the man at the door needs to be fired - inexcusable threatening behavior

we were so so shocked they...

Cosco is pretty good. We always like shopping there but with not so many kids around, the need to shop there has dwindled down to never. Its great for bulk. Great variety. Prices are pretty good. Bakery, vegtables, etc.. its got pretty much everything ... kind of a one stop shop of items. But to have to pay a membership is a joke to me. We do not use it enough. Because of that it is 3 star instead of 4. I would think that its enough to get you in the building to shop. Why tack on a membership. We had several memberships and never benefitted from it. That may be our fault for not paying enough attention but then, who has time to really dig in and find coupons or whatever the benefit was for being a member. I think its a joke and if I owned it I wouldn't do that. I would just let people come in in droves and benefit from the products. In the long run and with the pandemic, more people are struggling. People love deals. I think thats why we shop there. The best deals. If you have lots of kids, you want deals. Since they have bulk, it should be noticeable improved prices but I did not see a lot of that. Big deals. not really. If you buy a lot, its almost the exact same price which does not encourage buying quantity. If you are going to the trouble of providing bulk, cut a deal. I do like their variety in so many things but the deals have never been enough to make me want to go there for specific items. We just shop on line now for the best deals. Shopping online has replaced any deals out there. we still love to get out and look around and see whats out there but like many people, we are a bit more aware of expenses. I suggest Cosco push on bigger deals to make it the place to come to for quantity and quality. What I am saying is that there is nothing all that special about Cosco to make me want to go there much less get a membership. Not one person in the past 20 years has said, "You should go to Cosco's, they have great deals and great quality." To me that is piss poor management who is not even trying. Your typical US business practice. What they have accomplished is getting a huge variety of items under one roof. Nothing to write home...