Key Points
- Costco sells rotisserie chickens at $4.99, losing money to attract more customers.
- The chain has held this price for decades.
- Costco bought a processing plant in order to keep its costs down.
Costco’s $4.99 chicken has been one of its major calling cards, and the warehouse club has gone to extreme steps to keep it at that price point.
“Costco is willing to go to extreme lengths to keep its prized rotisserie chickens at $4.99,” according to CNN. “For the past few years, it’s been recruiting farmers in Nebraska and recently opened a sprawling, $450 million poultry complex of its very own in Nebraska.”
The warehouse club loses money selling the chickens, but makes up for it in added sales and simply by enticing members to its stores.
“A loss-leader is an item that costs more to make or manufacture than it sells for, but it gets people in the door and buying other items that make up for the hit to a company’s bottom line,” Food Republic reported. “In Costco’s case, the roughly three-pound birds are a beloved item whose ultra-low price tag alone is worth a trip to the store for many.”
Those cheap chickens, however, appear to be putting Costco members at risk of salmonella, according to a report shared by Sentient Media.
Costco has a chicken problem
“The report, by advocacy group Farm Forward, is based on an analysis of USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service inspection data from 2020-2024 and focuses on Costco’s Lincoln Premium Poultry chicken slaughter and processing plant in Fremont, Nebraska. The plant slaughters over 100 million chickens annually for its rotisserie chicken and Kirkland Signature raw chicken brand, and reportedly supplies about 40% of Costco’s chicken,” the news website shared.
The data showed some concerning things about Costco’s chicken.
- Since Costco’s Fremont plant opened in 2019 it has consistently failed the USDA’s monthly rolling tests for salmonella, receiving the worst Category 3 rating 92% of the time, the report says.
- Over a more recent period, from September 2023 through July 2025, the Fremont plant received a Category 3 rating 100% of the time, the director of Farm Forward, Andrew deCoriolis, tells Sentient, suggesting that contamination rates are getting worse.
- Consumer Reports also includes the Costco plant among its most contaminated poultry plants in the U.S. based on data collected through July 26, 2025.
How consumers can avoid food poisoning
Consumer Reports shared tips on how to avoid eating contaminated meat.
- Wash your hands in warm soapy water throughout the cooking process — before prepping, after handling raw meat, and again when finished. Also wash knives used on meat before using them to cut other foods.
- Use separate cutting boards for meat and other food products.
- Cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165° F and use a meat thermometer to check.
- While shopping at the grocery store, keep raw meats in a disposable bag, away from other foods, especially ones you’re likely to eat without cooking, like fruits and vegetables.
- In the refrigerator, store raw meat in a bag or bowl to prevent leaking.
- Thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator so that it stays below 40° F. Doing so will impede the growth of bacteria.
- Avoid rinsing raw meat because it can spread bacteria around your sink or counter.
FDA can’t stop Costco’s rotisserie chicken
Just because the USDA has failed a plant does not mean that it can stop its products, in this case chicken, from reaching consumers.
“The agency does not have the authority to stop the plant’s operation, stop raw meat from reaching store shelves, or recall raw meat products. The contaminated chicken can still be sold in grocery stores across the country,” Sentient reported.
Costco did not immediately return a request for comment on this story filed through its media request form.
Costco’s rotisserie chicken is a massive draw
As a long-time, but not current, Costco member, I’ve never enjoyed its rotisserie chicken. The chain injects its chickens with a saline solution, and I find the pricier, but still affordable, whole chickens at Fresh Market and Whole Foods a better option.
Former CFO Richard Galanti explained during Costco’s first-quarter 2023 earnings call that the $4.99 price was part of the chain’s brand promise.
“Part of it is also consciously keeping the price on the chicken at $4.99…and keeping the price of the hot dog. All those things go into that equation as well. But we know that that can be a driver of business,” he said.
In a 2015 earnings call, he noted that the move has cost the company money.
“When others were raising their chicken prices from $4.99 to $5.99, we were willing to eat, if you will, $30 to $40 million a year in gross margin by keeping it at $4.99,” Galanti said, according to The Seattle Times. “That’s what we do for a living.”
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0Costco sells a lot of chickens
- Costco sold about 137 million rotisserie chickens in 2023, according to Chowhound.
- Costco has been selling more than 100 million rotisserie chickens annually since at least 2020, added the LA Business Journal.
- Previous filings/reporting show 117 million sold in fiscal 2022 and 106 million in 2021, according to the chain’s 2023 annual report.
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0About the authors
