Costco Is Losing $40 Million Every Year In Rotisserie Chicken Costs And They Don’t Even Care

Costco has been selling whole rotisserie chickens for a while now. At $4.99, it’s one of the cheapest offerings of ready-to-eat whole chickens around. Turns out, that $4.99 price tag is costing Costco millions of dollars. They just don’t care.

Richard Galanti, chief financial officer of Costco, recently spoke to the Seattle Times about Costco’s consistent chicken pricing. According to the Times, Costco loses about $30 to $40 million every year in chicken prices because they refuse to raise them higher than $4.99. While competitors are charging $6-7 for chicken, Costco has been adamant at keeping the cost at $5.

This seems to be a practice that reaches all the way from the deli out to the food court where the price of hot dogs, sodas and pizzas are cheap and consistent.

Costco is reported to have sold 76 million rotisserie chickens in 2014.

Photo: Costco Chicken