Costco adds membership scanners upon entry to crack down on customers sharing cards
Customers wait in line to check out purchases at Costco store on June 28, 2023 in Teterboro, New Jersey. (Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — When customers walk in to shop at Costco Wholesale, they flash a membership card to an employee who typically gives a smile and a nod before they can glide their XL cart into the big box retailer. But now, the warehouse store is cracking down on its entry parameters to avoid non-members from slipping inside under a false pretense.
The company has caught on to friends utilizing someone else’s membership card to access the big box store, so to combat the issue, its adding a new system upon arrival.
“Over the coming months, membership scanning devices will be used at the entrance door of your local warehouse. Once deployed, prior to entering, all members must scan their physical or digital membership card by placing the barcode or QR Code against the scanner,” Costco said in a statement online. “Guests must also be accompanied by a valid member for entry.”
The warehouse retailer said an attendant will be at the door to assist any customers with questions or concerns.
“If your membership is inactive, expired, or you would like to sign up for a new membership, the attendant will ask that you stop by the membership counter prior to entering the warehouse to shop,” the statement continued. “Additionally, if your membership card does not have a photo, please be prepared to show your valid photo ID.”
Members without a photo on their card can also go to the membership counter and get their photo taken to add to the card.
A box of Kellogg Co. Famous Amos brand chocolate chip and pecan cookies is arranged for a photograph in Ottawa, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, April 1, 2019. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Wallace “Wally” Amos Jr., the founder of Famous Amos cookies, has died, his family said Wednesday. He was 88.
He died “peacefully” at home following a battle with dementia, his family said.
Amos, a native of Tallahassee, Florida, opened the first Famous Amos cookie shop in Hollywood, California on the famed Sunset Blvd. in 1975. Amos’ cookie brand exploded in popularity over the years, becoming known for its signature beige packaging and blue lettering.
“With his Panama hat, kazoo, and boundless optimism, Famous Amos was a great American success story, and a source of Black pride,” read a statement from the Amos family.
The statement continued, “It’s also a part of our family story for which we will forever be grateful and proud. Our dad taught as the value of hard work, believing in ourselves, and chasing our dreams. He was a true original Black American hero.”
The statement also asked for contributions to Alzheimer’s Association.
“We also know he would love it if you had a chocolate chip cookie today,” the statement finished.
Amos was recognized as the Horatio Alger Award recipient in 1987, an award who recognizes Americans who are “contemporary role models whose experiences exemplify that opportunities for a successful life are available to all individuals who are dedicated to the principles of integrity, hard work, perseverance and compassion for others.”
Amos’ membership page on the award’s website details a career as a music agent prior to Famous Amos. The founder also authored several books including The Famous Amos Story: The Face That Launched a Thousand Chips, The Cookie Never Crumbles: Practical Recipes for Everyday Living and The Man with No Name: Turn Lemons into Lemonade.
(NEW YORK) — In the final weeks of the campaign, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have sought to best each other on the all-important issue of the economy, which many voters rank as their top concern.
Both candidates have made manufacturing a centerpiece of their plans, but their respective approaches feature stark differences.
Harris aims to close corporate tax loopholes and throw government support behind the production of critical goods. By contrast, Trump wants to protect domestic manufacturers with tariffs on foreign products while cutting corporate taxes and easing regulations.
Manufacturing accounts for about 10% of U.S. gross domestic product and an even smaller share of the nation’s jobs. But the sector bears outsized importance since the production of essential goods holds national security implications and many manufacturing workers live in key swing states, experts said.
“There’s a belief that manufacturing is special,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who studies trade policy, told ABC News.
Here’s what to know about where Harris and Trump stand on manufacturing, and what experts think of their respective plans:
Trump: Tariffs and corporate tax cuts
On the campaign trail, Trump talks about tariffs more than just about any other policy proposal. The tax on imports makes up a key part of his plan for revitalizing manufacturing, alongside a lower tax burden for companies that he says would boost production and hiring.
Trump has promised a sharp escalation of tariffs enacted during his first term. Trump has proposed tariffs of between 60% and 100% on Chinese goods. A set of far-reaching tariffs would also include a tax as high as 20% on all imported products.
In theory, a tax on imports would give domestic producers a leg up in competition with foreign manufacturers, Christopher Conlon, a professor of economics at New York University who studies trade, told ABC News.
“His plan is based on the idea that foreign competitors are pricing their products too low and what we need to do is erect a wall of tariff barriers around the U.S.,” Conlon told ABC News.
An escalation of tariffs could expand certain areas of U.S. manufacturing vulnerable to foreign competition, which could result in added jobs at companies protected by the policy, experts said.
The economy added manufacturing over the first few years of his presidency, though the pandemic wiped out much of those gains.
Experts cautioned about a spike in input costs and consumer prices that could end up hindering many manufacturers and hammering household budgets. Evidence indicates that the Trump tax cut did not provide a significant boost for the economy, they added.
U.S. manufacturers of sophisticated products like automobiles and advanced medical equipment often import raw materials. A tariff would likely raise costs for those companies and risk making them less competitive on the global market, Conlon said. While adding jobs at some manufacturers, the policy could cause layoffs at others.
“Nobody seems to have shared that wisdom with the Trump campaign,” Conlon said.
A similar cause and effect applies to prices paid by everyday people for imported goods at the grocery or department store. Broad tariffs on foreign goods would likely force importing companies to raise prices and reignite inflation, experts said.
In a statement to ABC News, the Trump campaign said its manufacturing plan would create jobs and cut taxes.
“President Trump is a businessman who built the greatest economy in American history, and certainly doesn’t need economics lessons from a professor who has never created jobs or built anything in his life,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
“President Trump successfully imposed tariffs on China in his first term AND cut taxes for hardworking Americans here at home — and he will do it again in his second term. President Trump’s plan will result in millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars returning home from China to America,” the statement added in part.
Harris: Close tax loopholes and provide government support
Harris has proposed a different approach to manufacturing that emphasizes closing tax loopholes for some large corporations and providing government support for high-priority areas within the sector.
The agenda carries over a key part of the strategy undertaken by the Biden administration, which invested billions into manufacturing through a series of measures focused on bolstering key industries.
The Inflation Reduction Act spent hundreds of millions of dollars to boost U.S. production of renewables as the nation pursues ambitious carbon emissions goals and a supply chain less dependent on China. While the CHIPS and Sciences Act infused tens of billions into the production of semiconductors.
“The Biden administration has picked sectors, and in those sectors companies are eligible for assistance,” said Lovely.
Last week, Harris put forward a plan calling for $100 billion investment in manufacturing to further bolster the sector. The policy would prioritize “industries of the future,” such as carbon-efficient steel production and data centers for artificial intelligence, the campaign said in a statement last week.
The Harris campaign said it aims to pay for the investment with a reform of the international tax code that prevents producers from skirting U.S. taxes in a “race to the bottom.”
“The facts are clear: When he was president, Trump lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs and created new incentives for companies to ship American jobs to China. Economists warn if Trump takes power again, his policies will crush American manufacturing jobs, send even more jobs to China, and cost middle class families $4,000 a year. This is a fundamental contrast with Vice President Harris, who is leading an American manufacturing boom – creating jobs right here at home and outcompeting China,” Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement to ABC News.
It remains unclear whether the support for manufacturing provided by the Biden administration has yielded significant gains in output or jobs, experts said.
The measures, however, have elicited a burst of factory construction. Spending on manufacturing-related construction surged from $76.4 billion in January 2021 to $238.2 billion in August 2024, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.
The surge in construction marks a positive signal but the critical test will be whether the plants deliver strong output and well-paying, long-term jobs, said Conlon.
“We haven’t had enough time to see if there’s a real effect or not,” he added. “How many chips are getting built by these plants? We don’t know that yet.”
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Reserve handed down a large interest rate cut this week, dialing back the central bank’s fight against inflation and signaling welcome relief for borrowers.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the Fed will continue to lower rates and further ease the burden for people and companies saddled with loans.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a policymaking body at the Fed, on Wednesday forecast further interest rate cuts.
By the end of 2024, interest rates will fall nearly another half of a percentage point from their current level of between 4.75% and 5%, according to FOMC projections. Interest rates will drop another percentage point over the course of 2025, the projections further indicated.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the projections reflect expectations that the economy will sustain the same pair of trends that prompted the rate cut in the first place: falling inflation and rising unemployment.
“These projections, however, are not a committee plan or decision,” Powell said. “As the economy evolves, monetary policy will adjust.”
Experts who spoke to ABC News predicted that the Fed is all but certain to deliver at least one more interest rate cut this year, hewing fairly closely to its projection for the coming months. However, the experts voiced caution about the forecast for rate cuts next year, saying the path would depend on economic performance, which is difficult to anticipate.
“These long-term interest rates projections are almost never correct,” Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, told ABC News. “There is a lot of uncertainty.”
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In theory, low interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment, while high interest rates slow economic performance and ease inflation.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of about 9% in 2022, though it remains slightly higher than the Fed’s target of 2%. The FOMC expects the inflation rate to fall to 2.1% next year and to reach the central bank’s target of 2% by 2026, projections show.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has ticked up this year. The FOMC expects that rate to also rise gradually next year, then hold steady over the following two years.
“If we stay on track with these projections, that’ll be great news,” Horstmeyer said. “It will be a signal that we pulled off a soft landing.”
The economy, however, may not perform as anticipated. A snag in the cooldown of inflation, or even an outright reversal, could prompt the Fed to pause its rate projected rate cuts, experts said. On the other hand, a greater-than-expected rise in unemployment or a possible recession could cause the Fed to cut rates faster than initially planned.
“If inflation has any surprise to the upside, it wouldn’t take much to see one of those projected cuts disappear,” William Luther, a professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University, told ABC News, referring to the two quarter-point rate cuts expected over the remainder of 2024.
A spike in unemployment, meanwhile, could prompt the Fed to revisit its plans for interest rates going forward, Luther added.
“If labor markets in particular were to show signs of deterioration over the next two months, we could see considerable revisions to the path of the federal funds rate,” Luther said.
On Wednesday, Powell acknowledged the flexibility of the Fed’s plans for rate cuts.
“We can go quicker if that is appropriate. We can go slower if that’s appropriate. We can pause if that’s appropriate,” Powell said. “This process evolves over time.”
