Earlier this spring, Costco made a huge change to the packaging of a cult-favorite meals product, and now longtime followers are noticing — and complaining — concerning the change.
Costco bought an estimated 137 million rotisserie chickens in 2023 whereas nonetheless sustaining a value of $4.99, regardless of inflation and rising manufacturing prices. However the firm started altering the packaging in March, from its signature onerous shell container to a transparent bag, a transfer that is been slowly rolled out into extra tales and inflicting a viral frenzy amongst loyal customers.
“Pricey Costco,” one fan penned on X. “Your new rotisserie hen luggage and the hen inside them is nowhere close to what they was.”
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“New recession warning simply dropped: Costco goes low-cost on their rotisserie hen container,” one other mentioned. “Brace yourselves.”
On Reddit, one consumer posted that the brand new luggage had leaked upon switch house, which opened the door to a slew of comparable tales.
Hen juice spilled everywhere in the trunk of our automobile
byu/Bozerks inCostco
“I not too long ago grabbed two chickens within the bag for the primary time. Hated the whole lot about it,” one particular person wrote on the thread. “The luggage have been slick with juice on the show (we needed to look forward to them, so it was from the workers simply prepping them), so my fingers have been then lined in grease with no paper towels anyplace.”
“Talked to an worker about this. They’re spilling in peoples’ carts and on the checkout counters all day lengthy,” one other alleged. “The staff all hate the brand new luggage and there may be hope that Costco will discover a method to tackle the problem.”
Costco reportedly swapped the packaging in an try to chop again on plastic waste — the brand new luggage will use 75% much less plastic than the onerous shell containers and save an estimated 17 million kilos for resin every year, per an indication considered by Packaging Dive.
Costco didn’t instantly repsond to Entrepreneur’s request for remark.
The warehouse chain most not too long ago reported its fiscal Q3 2024 earnings with web gross sales reaching $57.39 billion, a 9.1% enhance in web gross sales from the identical time final yr.
CEO Ron Vachris credited the quarterly success to its Wagyu beef choices, gold bars, and a $1,200 swingset that is been flying off cabinets.
Costco EVP and CFO Gary Millerchip additionally famous on the decision that because of the corporate’s constant success, there is not any plan as of now to alter the value of its well-known $1.50 scorching canine combo deal or enhance membership charges.
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“We really feel actually good about membership renewal charges,” Millerchip mentioned on the decision. “We take a look at what’s occurred within the market over the previous few years and after we have been seeing excessive inflation and the chance and concern round recession … we’re nonetheless evaluating these issues to find out what the suitable timing is and after we attain that time the place we really feel it’s the proper time, in fact, we’ll be very open and direct and speaking that.”
Costco was up over 67% yr over yr as of Monday afternoon.
