Why the Cooked Chicken Costs Less Than the Raw One

A cooked chicken turns slowly under a heat lamp. A few steps away, the same bird sits raw in a refrigerated case — and sometimes costs more. The difference is not a mistake. Someone chose that price.The next time you walk past a rotisserie chicken, you'll notice that the store may be selling more than dinner.▌│▌│ ▌│ ▌▌│ ▌│▌ ▌│ ▌▌│▌ ▌│ ▌│▌│IN THIS EPISODE— Why retailers deliberately sell some products at or below cost— How the same cheap chicken can buy a supermarket basket or a warehouse membership— Why one retailer built part of its own poultry supply chain to protect a single memorable priceTHE NUMBER$30–40 million per year in forgone gross margin — Costco CFO Richard Galanti, 2015SOURCESConsumer Reports — supermarket rotisserie chicken reportingU.S. Department of Agriculture — chicken size and retail dataCostco earnings call — 2015▌│▌│ ▌│ ▌▌│ ▌│▌ ▌│ ▌▌│▌ ▌│ ▌│▌│Narration in this episode is AI-assisted.Research, writing and editorial judgment are human.Invisible Economics — The Systems Behind Everyday LifeNew episodes regularly.