I have mine running several virtual tabletops and caddy reverse proxy

Costco doesn’t do a real check either. They just look at your cart and swipe your receipt with a highlighter. The only thing I can imagine they are actually checking is approximate number of items.

That story is The Raft by Stephen King. It was included in the book Skeleton Crew, which was a collection of his short stories. The movie version was in Creepshow 2.