My Korean Life #48: Costco is great but...

A while ago I lost my Costco membership card. I even know approximately when/where I lost it but was unable to retrieve it. FYI - you can use your card worldwide at any Costco. So, I (incorrectly) assumed I could simply go to the local Costco here in Korea and get my card reprinted. This was NOT the case.

I entered the local Costco with my USA driver's license in hand and approached the customer service counter. I stated that I had lost my card and wished to have a new one printed. I also stated I had joined overseas in the USA. The employee said that she could not reprint membership cards that were not issued in Korea. I told her that I live in Korea now and do not have any current plans to visit the USA. She basically said, tough luck and that if I want to shop at Costco in Korea I need to become a member in Korea since I lost my old card issued in the USA.

Frustrated, I later wrote an email to Costco customer service via their website thinking that Costco in the USA could simply print a new card and mail it to me in Korea...unfortunately I got the below response (Click the screenshot to expand):

Really? So any of your stores can accept any membership card but you can't reissue all cards nor can you ship worldwide? My guess is each card simply has some check bit built-in so as long as "MEMBERSHIP" = TRUE the person can shop but otherwise there is no sharing of information in the system. Maybe there are some laws regarding this but it is extremely inconvenient to people that lose their cards aboard away from their 'home' membership country. Think military, expatriate community, long term vacationers and travelers.

I ended up rejoining Costco here in Korea but using my Korean address and other information. Membership in Korea is actually cheaper but they don't have gas stations like American Costcos do. The membership is less than $30 annually as opposed to $55 annually in the USA. I guess that is the one redeeming factor...cheaper membership costs...anyway, needless to say it was frustrating.

What has been frustrating to you living abroad? Below is Costco's Facebook page, maybe you have had a similar issue?

Costco

My Korean Life #18: Costco!

Before I moved to Korea I found out any Costco membership is valid worldwide, regardless of where you made the membership card. This was great news since I have been a Costco member for quite a while and was happy to find out I could continue to reap its benefits in Korea. For those that do not know, Costco is a wholesale membership club similar to Sam's Club and BJ's Club Warehouse. Most of what Costco sells is bulk goods in order to give discounts to members. In the USA membership costs around USD 50 per year...I will most likely have to renew here in Korea so I'll let you know the rates at that time.

Costco stores take up a lot of land so you may be thinking that Seoul would not be the optimal place to build such a store. However, instead of spreading the store out horizontally like in the USA, here in Seoul the store location I went to was multiple floors (food, other goods, parking). The street level floor was home to the electronics, clothing, and most non-food items. The first basement level was the cafeteria and all food items (bakery, meat, seafood, etc). Beneath the first basement were more basement levels for parking.

I hear that Costco often enforces that a member can only bring up to 3 guests with them but it didn't seem that this was heavily enforced the day I went. I went on a Monday and it was still very busy and I hear on weekend days you can barely move your cart through the aisles. Like USA Costcos, there are quite a few free sample stations located around the store. But unlike the USA, people were queuing just to get a sample...like 8-10 people deep queue.

Speaking of food, my friends and I ate at the cafeteria. They had the hot dog combo and pizza and some other items (ice cream, what looked like calzones or something) but I'm sure depending on where your Costco is the item selection varies. I don't think they would have Bulgogi pizza in the USA but here at the Korean one they do :D The tables were so close to each other you had to step on the bench seats to slide into place...this probably violated fire code but...welcome to Korea! The cafeteria, like the store itself was packed with what looked like a shopping cart graveyard right in front of the eating area. We luckily were able to retrieve our cart after eating.

As far as the store itself goes, the item choices were actually fairly similar to the USA. There were plenty of Kirkland branded items and decent deals on meat and seafood (slightly more varied than USA stores due to Korean tastes). They even had bulk boxes of Soju and Korean brands of beer. A couple of items that I was surprised to see were Reece's peanut butter cups, Salsa, and bagels! I didn't actually walk around the street level floor much but I plan to do that soon.

As for checking out. The only forms of payment offered at Korean Costco are the Samsung Costco credit card or cold hard CASH. No debit cards like in the USA. I even asked just to be sure and was met with a prompt "안 돼요" (Not possible). Basically saw a bunch of people paying in large amounts of cash but a few had the branded credit card.

I only bought one item that day and it was quite heavy but I did manage to get it back to my apartment from the subway. I will be going again soon so I'll update this post if I find out anything else!

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