Customers Say This Grocery Store's Rotisserie Chicken Fell Victim To Shrinkflation — But Did It?

Everyone seems to know what inflation is, and we've all been feeling it. While normally a good indicator for inflation costs, eggs are oddly down almost 30% since last year, reports NBC News. However, chicken, ground beef, and orange juice prices have all risen. And if you have noticed that prices on your favorite items have stayed the same, but the portion size has decreased, that's what is known as shrinkflation – something Safeway shoppers are claiming has happened to their store-brand rotisserie chickens.

While not as commonly known as inflation, shrinkflation occurs when manufacturers decrease the size of a product but not the retail price. It is something that often happens but can easily be overlooked. Many times, consumers may notice what they assume is a simple product rebrand — new packaging. But what has really happened is that new packaging may be concealing a smaller amount. And you are going to end up paying more for less.

Recently, Safeway's rotisserie chicken has been under shrinkflation fire. Customers have joined together on Reddit, heartily agreeing that the rotisserie chicken has definitely gotten smaller. One theory suggested Safeway had possibly changed to Bantam chickens instead of common meat birds. But after doing some digging, we discovered that Safeway has been serving up the same size bird (1 pound 14 ounces) for years. In fact, it was in 1996 that Safeway increased its rotisserie chicken size by 25% to get to the almost 2-pound bird we see today.

Safeway has kept up its rotisserie chicken size standards for decades. But customers are still up in arms when comparing the size and price of their Safeway chicken to the likes of Costco. And there is a good reason for that. A Costco rotisserie chicken is going to cost about half the price of a Safeway rotisserie chicken at $4.99. Plus, that chicken is going to be considerably larger, with a post-cook weight of about 3 pounds.

Sam's Club is about the same. The Member's Mark rotisserie chicken is $4.98, about half the cost of Safeway's. And the size of those chickens is going to be between 3 and 4 pounds post-cooking. So, consumers are right when comparing Safeway chickens to big box stores — they are smaller, and they do cost more. But this isn't a recent occurrence.

While conspiracies are floating around about stores injecting cooked birds with saline or broth to increase their weight, we don't see that happening here. A more reasonable explanation is that consumers are putting more consideration into what they are paying versus what they are getting. Other than the big box stores, we have noticed that many store-bought rotisserie chickens weigh around 2 pounds. And the prices vary quite a bit. Our favorite rotisserie chicken from The Fresh Market is around 1.5 pounds and costs $8.99. That's an even smaller bird than Safeway, but well worth the price to us.