How Costco's CEO Responded To Customer Complaints About Woody Chicken

Costco is known for good quality products at great prices, and the membership retail chain's fresh food section is no different. The products are not the best in the business, but for the price, you'd be hard-pressed to find better quality and quantity, which is essentially Costco's value proposition. In addition to its iconic $1.50 hot dog combo, the company's $4.99 rotisserie chickens that are switched out every couple of hours are legendary for their price-to-quality offer. Therefore, when a customer has a problem with the quality of Costco's chicken, it's kind of a big deal.

When one Costco shopper brought the unpleasant experience they had to the company's CEO Ron Vachris, they got a reply from assuring them of a refund. Moreover, Vachris stated that his company would look into the matter. The email, as it was shared on Reddit, described how the customer had faced an increasing amount of "woody chicken" in the meat they were getting from Costco. They noted that the issue was more prominent in larger pieces. The comment thread that followed had statements from others who have had similar unsavory experiences with chicken breast meat, while others ruminated on the cause. In either case, and despite the CEO's reassuring response, the question of how Costco will deal with these consistent complaints may have a tricky answer.

The issue with woody chicken isn't limited to Costco but is also being faced by many other chicken suppliers and retailers. It has become increasingly prominent over the last few years, with rising cases of chicken breast meat having a pale color and coarse texture of striations of fibers that can be felt during eating, making the meat seem woody. While there are innumerable ways to use storebought chicken, it's difficult to hide this particular unpleasant texture in most dishes.

Ensuring consistency and quality while keeping up with demand has led the company to take some pretty big steps, which also resulted in an overhaul of how Costco sources its rotisserie chickens. However, the issue of woody chicken breasts (it doesn't affect any other cuts) is one that will require a different solution. That's because the problem seems to be a direct result of attempting to meet growing demand. This degraded meat texture is most prevalent in larger pieces of breast meat and is more common in older and larger birds, and especially ones that don't move often (for instance, if they were confined to a tightly-packed yard or barn). Adding to the problem, many chickens and other poultry are specifically bred to reach large sizes in the shortest amount of time. This is why, until the issue is addressed, your best bet to get good, non-woody chicken would be to look for the free-range variety, though even the freest-ranging of birds may still exhibit the problem.