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Costco is raising the cost of its yearly memberships, Amazon appears to be experimenting with removing gift cards from retail stores in New York, and Copenhagen is offering free lunches and kayak tours. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).
Costco to raise membership costs for the first time since 2017
Years ago, I had a Costco GM tell me that that there were three constants in life: death, taxes and the price of a Costco hot dog. In fact, in 2018, Costco’s then-CEO asked co-founder James Sinegal about possibly inching up that famous $1.50 price-tag (one that’s been stable since 1984). Sinegal’s response? “If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you.”
Evidently, membership prices aren’t quite as sacred as the the 200 million-ish hot dogs and polish sausages that the fly out of the warehouse giant annually. In fairness, Costco hasn’t raised its membership prices since 2017. Since then, we’ve seen inflation of between 25-30%, so an ~8-9% hike in the cost of an annual membership doesn’t seem untoward. For many people, the better (and much less publicized) change is that Costco will be raising the maximum annual cashback for Executive Memberships by 25%, to $1,250. For big spenders, businesses and folks that take advantage of gold-flipping, that more than makes up for the $10 increase in the cost of doing business.
Wells Fargo making Bilt cardholders apply…for a card they already have
Wells Fargo and Bilt seem to subscribe to the theory of “there’s no such thing as negative publicity.” In between dazzling some folks with 100%+ transfer bonuses and free points when paying rent, the dynamic duo has been tamping down rumors of marital discord and cracking the whip on folks who would deign to “abuse” their points-earning privilege (“get down with PPP, yeah you know me“). Now, they’re coming after early-adopters.
For about a year, Bilt cards were issued by Evolve Bank, before being taken over by Wells Fargo. I had no idea, but it turns out those original cardholders were never transitioned over to Wells Fargo and continued to use the cards issued by Evolve Bank (which is currently involved in a cybercrime investigation). Turns out, Wells Fargo must not have had much interest in acquiring the “back book,” as Bilt e-mailed those longer-term customers to let them know that their current card would be closed and they had six months to decide whether to reapply through Wells (approval not guaranteed) or go gentle into that good night. Of course, there was a range of emotion – from mild irritation to outrage – over folks having to burn a precious 5/24 slot for a card that they already had. Bilt tried to soften things a bit by offering all affected cardholders who re-apply a 10,000 point bonus, regardless of whether or not they’re approved. This gave rise to some particularly peeved people freezing all their credit reports in order to get the 10,000 points while guaranteeing a denial and sparing any impact to their 5/24 status. One guy I know called it, “the 10,000 point middle-finger.”
Free kayak tours in Copenhagen for taking a bike ride
Copenhagen is probably my favorite of the Scandinavian capitols, despite having some of the worst weather in Continental Europe. It’s a dynamic place full of great restaurants, inviting waterways and ample opportunities for biking, walking and kayaking. Now, it’s launched a new pilot program called CopenPay, which allows folks to earn rewards ranging from a free lunch, ice cream, kayak tour or free entrance to a museum. All you have to do is take public transit, bike instead of drive or help in one of the city’s numerous urban gardens (there’s a whole list of qualifying activities). This is a fun idea; I especially like that visitors can be rewarded by helping to beautify and care for the city alongside locals. It’s a refreshingly constructive alternative answer to some of the over tourism problems that so many European cities are facing. TPG goes in depth about the new program in the post linked above.
Amazon experimenting with taking gift cards out of New York retailers
It doesn’t take more than a glance at the ubiquitous gift card racks at many retailers to suss out that they’re a popular item, both for actual gifts and for earning rewards in bonus categories at stores that otherwise might not have them. I’d imagine that one of the most popular gift cards in the United States is Amazon; these days who doesn’t have use for some cheddar at the King Kong of online retail. I’ve heard online chatter recently that the company is growing a bit disenchanted with selling its gift cards through third-party retailers. After all, why share any of that bling with a middle man, when folks can just come directly to source of…the…uh…Amazon? It sounds like it may be putting that theory to a test as Amazon has seems to have removed all of its gift cards from every single Staple and Office Depot (and possibly other retailers) in the entire State of New York (I can already hear Nick Reyes’ cries of agony all the way from Upstate NY). Hopefully, this scourge doesn’t spread beyond the borders of the Empire State. In the meantime, Your Mileage May Vary shares the gory details.
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