Costco change to a popular food item upsets customers in NJ

🐔Costco has made a change to a food item

🐔This has upset some customers

Costco has made a big change to its rotisserie chickens and customers are not thrilled about it.

The change is not about the taste of the $4.99 chickens but the way they are packaged.

As of March, the membership-only warehouse store began replacing its hard-plastic packaging with flexible plastic bags, similar to what stores like Walmart and Whole Foods use to package their rotisserie chicken, according to Consumer Reports.

Costco rotisserie chicken in clamshell (Getty Images)

But why?

According to Costco, the new packaging will reduce its plastic use by 75 percent and minimize resin use by 17 million pounds per year. That means not as many Costco trucks will be needed for shipping, resulting in a carbon reduction of 4,000 metric tons, Consumer Reports stated.

With these environmental benefits, why are customers unhappy about their rotisserie chickens being packaged in bags rather than clamshell containers?

According to Reddit, many customers find that the new rotisserie chicken bags are too oily and leak.

One Reddit user wrote that her hands became greasy after grabbing two chickens in bags to put in her cart and that the grease transferred from the shopping car to the rolling belt at checkout.

The leakage could also mean the potential for bacteria to grow on surfaces.

The new plastic packaging for the chicken rotisserie may not be available yet in all Costco locations.

In other Costco news, the wholesale store has decided to increase its membership fee for the first time in seven years by $5 in both the U.S. and Canada.

The price of Costco's Executive Membership is also increasing by 10 bucks from $120 to $130 a year.

The price hike goes into effect on Sept. 1.

As of May 2024, there are 584 Costco stores in the United States, including 20 in New Jersey, according to hasdata.com.

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