Library card will soon double for Costco membership ... for a week

If you have a Toledo Lucas County Public Library card, your shopping options next week have expanded.

Warehouse club retailer Costco has agreed to let any library cardholder shop at its West Toledo and Perrysburg stores starting Monday and running through Nov. 26 — thereby including the Black Friday shopping period when the retailer will offer special prices and many holiday items.

The Costco in Perrysburg just prior to its June, 2015, opening.

The partnership includes using gas station privileges at both Costco stores, located at 3405 W. Central Ave. in Toledo and 26400 N. Dixie Hwy. in Perrysburg.

“This is actually our second year. We ran it as a pilot program last year, and it was really successful,” said Ben Malczewski, a library spokesman.

“But it came about quickly, and we didn’t promote it much. This year we’re trying to get out front,” he said.

The program evolved several years ago through a relationship between the retailer and the staff at the library’s Sigmond Sanger branch on Central Avenue not far from the West Toledo Costco store.

The two parties got together last year to extend the arrangement to all Lucas County library cardholders.

Because the shopping agreement extends through next week, library cardholders will be able to shop the Costco stores on Black Friday and take advantage of its specials that normally would be restricted to warehouse members.

“You can shop there and you don’t have to get a Costco membership. Obviously, they’d like you to get one, but there’s no obligation,” Mr. Malczewski said.

“This is really just an opportunity where we thought we could help people out at this time,” he added.

To use the program, library cardholders must go to Costco’s service desk when they arrive, and they will be issued a type of temporary waiver allowing them to shop, said Katie Midgley, assistant manager at the Sanger branch.

Mr. Malczewski said a library card gives a member access to a variety of different services. But a shopping benefit is an unusual offering.

“We have different services, like streaming audio and video. But those are certain services we’ve had for a while. This is very different,” he said.

Contact Blade Business Writer Jon Chavez at jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.