New Costco Members: 1-Year Costco Gold Star Membership + $40 Costco Shop Card Expired

Two more days until its been 18 months for me.

I have been surviving on Costco Shop/gift cards and shopping at Costco as a non-member. I've got it down to a science now:

When it's just about your turn to check out, you just directly request the cashier to get a manager with the following reason: "I want to use a Costco gift/shop card as a non-member". This direct request shortens the amount of time they feign about not being able to check you out as a non-member.

I have a printout of this page [costco.com]. Click the second FAQ item, print it & take a highlighter to the 2nd to last sentence if they play dumb.

Are you a Costco employee? Every time I try to check out, someone tries to sell me this. And every time, I try to stop them before they start, but they never take my first couple "no" for an answer. They regurgitate the same thing about how that 2% will add up to the cost of the executive portion of my membership (I don't spend enough for it to pay for the whole membership).

Here's why I won't, and why this annoys me. First, it's a high-pressure blitz when I just want to go home. Leave me alone. Second, and most importantly, Costco uses gift certificates like it's 2003. They do this on purpose though. They make make killer money on membership upgrades because they're counting on people forgetting their gift certificate (not allowed to use it online), people losing their gift certificate and not realizing they can ask for a new one, or people just not caring until it's expired. Load it onto my membership card where it can be applied to my next purchase, and I'd do it. They won't do that though because it would hurt their profits. I am too stubborn to participate in that hustle even if it might benefit me because I'm only out ~$5-$15/yr at most.

I continue to patronize them because I'll occasionally drive the 30 minutes to the brick and mortar store (in-person shopping there is still fun until I get to the checkout), but I mostly get in on bundles of discounted clothes for work each year. The convenience and savings on that alone is what pays for my membership.

tl;dr if you're buying this and not upgrading, expect to be harassed and have someone condescend to your math skills at the checkout lane more times than not

This sounds like you used the instacart service. Costco does not do same-day delivery in-house, they just offer instacart as an optional service for those who may require same day delivery.