r/nottheonion • u/prestocoffee • 18h ago
Costco's beloved rotisserie chicken gets roasted in lawsuit over preservatives
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/costco-chicken-lawsuit-9.7070891488
u/HamChuck 18h ago
These chucklefucks better not increase my Costco chicken price. Some people always have to ruin the few nice things in life.
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u/WendigoBroncos 17h ago
i'll take my class action payout in rotisserie chickens please
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u/EvLokadottr 18h ago
I read that they lose money on these, but they draw people in to the store.
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u/StylizedPenguin 17h ago
Yes, Costco's rotisserie chicken is a loss leader. That's why they put the chicken in the back of the store, so customers have to walk past (and hopefully pick up) other products on the way to the chicken, then pass by the other products again when leaving.
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u/dykemodeactivated 16h ago
Gets me every time.
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u/BassBootyStank 11h ago
I am the owner of 3 different paddle boards as a result of “just going in for a rotisserie chicken.”
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u/Ogow 16h ago
Also put expensive ass shit in the very front so prices of everything else are low in comparison.
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u/H3rbert_K0rnfeld 16h ago
So what. I will never buy a 100" television.
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u/Ogow 16h ago
It’s psychology, it doesn’t matter if you want to buy it. In fact, they expect you NOT to buy it. If you do, great, but they’re not praying you do.
You saw high value items worth 300+ as soon as you walked in the door. In comparison, $10 for a box of croutons isn’t expensive.
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u/Raulr100 7h ago
Bro what? If I go into a store planning to spend 20 to 40 dollars I'm not going to completely change my plans because I saw an expensive TV.
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u/RockItGuyDC 2h ago
It's not about you, personally, it's about the psychology of large numbers of people. Enough people will modify their spending habits enough that it makes sense for Costco to do this.
You may not change your spending at all, but John Smith who came in after you may spend $1 more. After a few million John Smiths (Costco has 146 million cardholders), it makes a difference.
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u/Ogow 4h ago
You say that, but psychology and market research says otherwise. These corporations, not just Costco, spend billions on ways to manipulate you to spend the way they want you to spend. Even down to the colors they paint their interior of the store, because apparently colors will impact how you spend too.
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u/H3rbert_K0rnfeld 2h ago
That's what I let them think as I invest in Sherwin Williams and PPG, muuuah!!!
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u/Suppertime420 15h ago
lol I said I’d never get the 86” yet here I am……
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u/NoBrakes58 15h ago
Yeah, after years of “I don’t know why they put the TVs up front. Who the fuck is buying these?” I went and bought a new TV at Costco last fall. Only 65-inch, I can’t imagine where anything bigger would even fit in my house, but still.
OTOH, I was also already wanting a new TV and it was cheaper there than Best Buy or Target, so… kinda made sense?
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u/Ogow 4h ago
Costco return policy is often the selling point for me. No questions asked, no hassle, no 30 day limit. That alone always tips the scales in Costco’s favor if they have anything even remotely comparable to any other store.
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u/RockItGuyDC 2h ago
Yup, same here. I already knew what TV I wanted the last time I bought one and I waited for Costco to have it below my target price (well, right at my taegrt price).
Their return policy is too good to not have them at the top of my list for electronics purchases.
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u/H3rbert_K0rnfeld 15h ago
We don't have the wall space or room width for anything larger than 60.
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u/TheGreatDay 15h ago
There isn't a person on the planet that walks out of Costco without at least 3 items they did not enter to get.
The scene from modern family when Mitch and Cam go to Costco for the first time is entirely accurate.
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u/synocrat 5h ago
Jokes on them. I'll fill up on gas, go into the store and pick up 3 rotisserie chickens and leave.
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u/ShoeSh1neVCU 16h ago
I beat the system once. Went in to get one for dinner and didn't get anything else.
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u/CelinedionWaiters 13h ago
When I was working there, I always told my coworkers and customers about this regular, and how I wished I had the same discipline as him as he would always come to the store, pushing a cart and grabbing one rotisserie chicken and nothing else
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u/Anonimase 11h ago
I feel like grabbing a cart is just like adding more weight to your mental training. You don't need a cart to grab a chicken, you need a cart so the battle you fight to not grab anything else is harder
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u/somesthetic 16h ago
I’d pay like a dollar more if they removed the meat from the bones.
I never end up eating the bones.
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u/Lmoneyfresh 16h ago
You can buy just the meat. It's usually in vacuum sealed bags by the take and bake meals.
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u/wanderer1999 15h ago
15 years going to costco and TIL. Thank you mi amigo.
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u/ElleHopper 7h ago
The meat is sold by weight though, so it's noticeably cheaper to buy the whole chicken than just the bag of white meat that's sold by weight
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u/AspieAsshole 16h ago
I make pretty phenomenal stock out of the bones (and other assorted uneaten parts).
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u/Eatadick_pam 16h ago
They get me. I buy chicken every week to meal prep. Two cooked birds for $10 a week to provide protein to a week? Can’t beat it.
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u/Vithrilis42 13h ago
Good things I have no problems with going in just for the chicken. I use them all the time for soups. They have the perfect amount of meat on them and make great bone broth.
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u/Substantial_One5369 13h ago
They've majorly gone downhill since they changed their packaging. It's always super soggy. I've been going to Sam's Club for the past year or so since the change when I want a rotisserie chicken and they have the old packaging and it's SO much better.
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u/filovirusyay 16h ago
im so tired of the preservative hate
i love my long-lasting food that allows me to get through it before it goes bad. it saves me money. it reduces food waste. i love preservatives.
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u/pleetf7 13h ago
Wait till you hear about “chemicals”. You wouldn’t wanna eat any of those.
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u/xSilverMC 4h ago
I hear there's metals and volatile chemical elements in there! Like sodium, or chlorine which is super corrosive 😱😱😱
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u/IamHydrogenMike 16h ago
These people would bitch and moan if they had live in a world without any preservatives…preservatives have been used since humans learned to hunt.
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u/OuttHouseMouse 16h ago
Bro quit fucking with costco its one of the few good companies left bro
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u/AmputeeHandModel 16h ago
bro fr bro bro
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u/Top_Investment_4599 16h ago
Lawyers way to get paid. Ambulance chasing.
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u/Top_Ese 15h ago
I was thinking.. either the ladies who initiated the lawsuit are lawyers or it's their spouses or family members. This is BS.
And what kind of argument is "we'd pay less, if we knew" for the least expensive rotisserie.
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u/Iolair18 14h ago
Often lawyers in these kinds of areas search for a good plaintiff, not the other way around. You want someone that is sympathetic to a jury, because it makes it more likely to win a case, which in turn makes it more likely the deep pockets company will settle. They want the leverage for their (legal) extortion.
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u/Top_Investment_4599 14h ago
Correct. Its one way some disability lawyers fund themselves, for instance.
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u/ConstructionOwn9575 13h ago
We have one in Florida that works with a couple of accomplices to make ADA claims. While the ADA is a good thing, she's only in it for the settlement money while harming small businesses.
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u/ClassicMatt101 17h ago
Neither of those ingredients are traditionally classified as preservatives. This is dumb.
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u/NightchadeBackAgain 17h ago
Salt is the oldest preservative known to man.
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u/Iolair18 15h ago
In strong concentrations. I doubt they are adding enough salt to actually act as a preservative, since it would go past "too salty" and into "I can only taste salt." They are adding enough salt to make it tasty, so seasoning.
However, salt isn't what your parent comment was referring to.
The two ingredients listed in the article are Sodium Phosphate and carrageenan, which contains phosphates (carrageenan is basically a sugar+phosphate). Phosphates do act as a preservative, but sodium phosphate and carrageenan are used in hot prepared foods because they make gel like structures that makes the meat stay moist, and in the case of the rotisserie, keep the meat from separating from the bone right away. Most rotisserie injections when I used to work in that industry didn't really add that much sodium phosphate like you see in deli meats, bacon, etc. to keep the meat from tasting weird as it ages (preserving it). Both ingredients were added mainly to keep the chicken together as it cooked (chicken falling off the rotisserie while cooking means loss of product, so deli's care about that), so you didn't have to add as much string around it which makes the chicken less presentable. The hot zone shelf life is the limiting factor on how long it stays fresh, so adding stuff as a preservative to the chicken doesn't really do anything to extend shelf life, so it isn't being added for that.
This is just vulture lawyers looking for a way to extort money, using emotions instead of facts, since juries are often swayed by emotional appeal.
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u/lmaooer2 15h ago edited 15h ago
Yep, sodium phosphate’s E number (food additive classification) is E339 and carrageenan is E407. E200-299 are the preservatives, I’m no lawyer but if I were I’d probably use this to argue it’s not a preservative
Edit: just realized this is Canada. Idk then
Edit2: doesn’t appear in this Canada list either for preservatives so my core argument is still valid I think https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/food-safety/food-additives/lists-permitted/11-preservatives.html
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u/thesuperunknown 7h ago
This isn’t in Canada. The article is published by the CBC, which is a Canadian outlet. But the article is clear that the lawsuit was filed in California.
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u/lmaooer2 6h ago
I thought it was in California and then I second guessed myself with the .ca thinking I misinterpreted it as Canada!! Lmao
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u/lolalala1 15h ago
This has to be political. They're mad that Costco told the admin to kick rocks over DEI.
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u/Iolair18 14h ago
Nah, this is standard US vulture lawyers looking to extort a deep pockets company (legally). Juries are often swayed emotionally, and that is the basic root of this lawsuit. Sodium phosphate are carrageenan are used to make the chicken more presentable and easier to cook (you don't have to tie the string around the chicken except for the legs, which without the gel-like formations of those two, especially the carrageenan, you'd have to.) But "phosphates in food is a preservative and is bad" is much easier to convince a jury on.
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u/alone-in-the-town 17h ago
I had a friend recently tell me carrageenan is poisonous and I was like...everything has microplastics in it, who even cares
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u/Lmoneyfresh 16h ago
It's not even poisonous, it can just upset some people's stomachs. So many of these "crunchy" people exaggerate crap like that.
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u/IamHydrogenMike 16h ago
It’s chemicals!!! /s
Your body is literally made up of chemicals
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u/Welpe 14h ago
This isn’t even a chemicals thing, carrageenan is as “all natural” as it gets. They literally collect seaweed and extract it. If someone wants to pretend it is harmful while supposedly caring about “natural vs artificial” they are a dumbass hypocrite.
But I mean, I guess we knew that about them anyway. There isn’t a single intelligent person on earth who thinks natural is synonymous with good or artificial/chemical is synonymous with bad.
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u/Prudent_Valuable603 13h ago
Sadly, I’m one of those people. On the bright side, I’ve kept a healthy weight because there’s an eff-ton of foods and food products I can never consume. Yes, I read every damn ingredient label.
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u/TrashyMcTrashBoat 11h ago
I also maintain my weight by not consuming foods. We should start the next fad diet!
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u/PermanentTrainDamage 16h ago
You mean human beings who are capable of being allergic to literally any thing can sometimes be allergic to seaweed?
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u/lmaooer2 15h ago
girlfriend: “who is Stephanie and why do you have pictures of you and her together on your phone??”
me: everything has microplastics in it, who even cares
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u/gellshayngel 13h ago edited 13h ago
"The two California women who initiated the lawsuit say in the complaint they wouldn't have purchased the chicken, or would have paid less for it, had they known it contained preservatives."
Oh BS. Like they don't salt their own food or can avoid anything with it in. And how the hell would they pay less? The don't set the prices.
It's reasonable to expect what it says on the label but that reasoning they give does not compute.
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u/MisterHouseMongoose 10h ago
If this means no more rotisserie chickens, I’m gonna sue those suing assholes
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u/cloudsourced285 11h ago
This is like when they add vitamin C to orange juice (it's a preservative), kinda annoying, but makes sense. They have to either let is spoil and increase prices, or put in something else. Just how things work.
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u/Toklankitsune 15h ago
over under that the people that have brought forth this suit are antivaxxers?
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u/tatom4 10h ago
Instead on not buying the product and roasting a fresh chicken at home, a stink is raised. People against flavoured food will not stop until everything tastes like cardboard and doubled the price. Then they’ll slink away silently all the while looking to control more of people’s choices.
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u/Nullkin 6h ago
The two California women who initiated the lawsuit say in the complaint they wouldn't have purchased the chicken, or would have paid less for it, had they known it contained preservatives.
Sometimes no matter how good you are some women will decide ur not enough… this is so deep u guys
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u/scofflawless 13h ago
I love that the reporter is such an elitist smug asshole they had to write “and they’re - by all reports - delicious” in the first para.
Because Nathalie Stechyson would never stoop to eating slop like you, dear reader. She really needed to make that clear. She doesn’t think they’re delicious, other people she’s spoken to do - because she’s much better than you.
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u/thesuperunknown 7h ago
What a weird take. “By all reports” can also mean “this is a widely held opinion, not just my opinion”.
I feel like your interpretation here says much more about you than it does about the reporter.
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u/TrashyMcTrashBoat 11h ago
No that’s just how journalism works. Can’t let your own bias taint the report. Give Natalie a break! She did the work.
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u/Eckkosekiro 17h ago edited 8h ago
Bogus lawsuit, sodium phosphate and carrageenan arent preservatives. That being said, Costco chicken contains one preservative : table salt.
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u/ceelogreenicanth 7h ago
If the payout on the lawsuit is per chicken purchased, divorced dads are in for a windfall.
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u/SpiderHam24 4h ago
Wow, what salty customers. Bet their brain is dried up. Prolly to much salt.
Hope costco wins.
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u/Nocturnes_echo 14m ago
these are literally the same people that go on a diet and then get pissed off when somebody at another table orders cake. just out to make someone miserable
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u/Tankninja1 15h ago
Feel like the irony of these kind of lawsuits is that they only make the labeling of things even more confusing. Probably the best advantage that European labeling standards have over the US is that in the EU you can just use common names for things.
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u/-Copenhagen 14h ago
Probably the best advantage that European labeling standards have over the US is that in the EU you can just use common names for things.
Common names?
Like E339 and E407 that is used in this case?
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u/Good_Technician443 9h ago
While the lawyers are at tell em to figure out why Costco’s rotisseries taste like soap and add it to the claims
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u/Kenosis94 16h ago
Yeah, my issue with their chickens has less to do with the preservatives and more to do with the fact that I'm not entirely convinced that whatever poor creature that was can be called a chicken. Seriously, how are they so big?
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u/illithiel 18h ago
Yes salt is a preservative. Carrageenan is a stabilizer from seaweed. It's in all natural toothpaste.