My wife and I were about to pay for our purchases at a Costco the other day when I was suddenly approached by a store employee. The handheld electronic device he was holding, he told us, was talking to the POS. It told him that our Gold membership would benefit from an upgrade at this very moment to a Premier membership. By upgrading, he went on, we would receive special discounts on select merchandise, and a 2 percent rebate on all purchases at the end of the year…or something like that.

He certainly was selling us the sizzle instead of the steak. I could tell by his urgent expression that he really wanted to close the deal right away and move on to the next customer in dire need of an upgrade. In the end, we opted to upgrade for a “special prorated upgrade fee today only” because he made it sound like a good idea.

I left feeling good about the decision to upgrade, but I also felt kind of like I needed to take a shower. It was the same feeling I had in a car salesman’s cramped cubicle when three burly guys tried to get us to sign on the dotted line before we left the dealership.

Thinking back on the experience, I was surprised that Costco would employ high-pressure tactics on customers at their most vulnerable spot in the shopping experience: the POS. While it makes perfect business sense to capture the customer data at the POS and offer the upgrade at that time, it all struck me as a little creepy. The fact that the odd-looking handheld device was receiving my personal profile wirelessly made me somewhat uncomfortable, given the huge number of identity thefts from retailer databases reported on recently.

I would have preferred that the cashier briefly alert me about the upgrade offer, and then tell me it could be paid for immediately. If I needed more info, there should have been brochures or fliers describing the offer at the POS.

I’m not about to stop shopping Costco over this. But it certainly degraded the shopping experience for me. I know it’s tempting for retailers of all sizes to present special offers at the POS. But I say make them soft-sell and with a smile on your face, not an in-your-face attitude like the guy I encountered at Costco. Maybe he’s a former car salesman?