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Costco Just Made These Two Major Changes to Its Store Services

Shopping at the wholesale chain in 2021 is not going to be what you're used to.

Two major changes from Costco will alter the way you shop this year. All Costco Photo Centers will close for good on Feb. 14 and there's now curbside pickup at several locations in the Southwest, the wholesale grocery chain recently announced.

In December, CEO Craig Jelinek said he thinks getting customers to physically shop in the store is still important despite store capacity limitations and other safety measures in place right now because of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that the store's emphasis on its brick and mortar locations is not going away. However, New Mexico members can now try Costco curbside pickup with a $10 fee and a minimum order of $100 through Instacart. However, at all locations soon, customers will miss out on the services that were once available at Costco Photo Centers. (Unsure of what to order? Here are The 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now.)

The Photo Center has been offering such services as printing, enlargements, greeting cards, canvas prints, photo books, calendars, and photo blankets, plus business printing products. While these will no longer be available in-store, they will be available to order online and ship to your home at CostcoPhotoCenter.com. The home movie transfer service is also still available on CostcoDVD.com.

To use the "easy and convenient" contactless Costco curbside service, customers in New Mexico can select their groceries on the website and choose same-day delivery and then pickup. All fresh and non-food items are available to order, which is about 2,000 items in total. Customers then receive a text when their order is ready, and there is a one-hour pickup window. A Costco employee will load the car in a designated curbside parking spot.

There's no news yet on whether curbside pickup will become available at other Costco locations nationwide. But Costco currently offers same-day delivery on perishable groceries like meat, produce, and seafood via Instascart in some zip codes. For other non-perishable items, 2-day delivery is available nationwide, except in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

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Amanda McDonald
Amanda has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in digital journalism from Loyola University Chicago. Read more about Amanda