If You Can’t Beat Costco, Join Costco: Walmart’s Rotisserie Chicken Copycat Strategy Shows Where Grocerant Growth Is Going

 

There is an old business saying: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

Walmart’s latest rotisserie-chicken marketing move may be one of the most entertaining examples of that strategy I have seen in food retail according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

But beneath the limited-edition $5.97 Chicken Purse, the bag charms and the social-media fun is a much bigger food-retailing story.

It is about Costco, packaging, price, prepared food, convenience, brand identity and the growing power of fresh-prepared meal components.

And from my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, Walmart has learned an important lesson: when a competitor owns a consumer food ritual, sometimes the smartest strategy is not to invent a new ritual. It is to make your version better, cheaper, easier and more culturally relevant.

Costco Didn't Invent the Bag — But It Made the Packaging Change Strategic

Let's get one food fact straight.

Costco was not the first retailer to put rotisserie chickens into flexible bags. Walmart, Whole Foods and other grocers were already using similar packaging. When Costco began transitioning its famous Kirkland Signature rotisserie chicken from rigid plastic clamshells to flexible bags in 2024, it was actually following an established packaging direction.

But Costco did something much more important.

It made the packaging part of the conversation.

Costco said the flexible packaging could reduce its plastic use by roughly 75%, or about 17 million pounds of plastic annually, while eliminating the need for an estimated 1,000 freight trucks and reducing carbon emissions by approximately 4,000 metric tons.

That is not simply a packaging change.

That is food merchandising economics meeting supply-chain economics meeting sustainability.

And Costco had something most retailers don't have:

A $4.99 product with cult status.

The $4.99 Costco rotisserie chicken has remained essentially unchanged for years despite inflation and higher operating costs. In fiscal 2025, Costco sold approximately 157.4 million rotisserie chickens globally—more than 431,000 per day.

That is an extraordinary number for a single prepared-food item.

The lesson is equally extraordinary:

Packaging doesn't have to make the food more expensive. Packaging can actually become part of the value equation.

Why Costco Will Continue to Lead Whole-Rotisserie-Chicken Sales

I see three reasons Costco will remain exceptionally difficult to dislodge in whole rotisserie chicken.

1. Costco owns the value benchmark

At $4.99, Costco has created a consumer reference point.

Once consumers know they can purchase a large, ready-to-eat whole chicken for $4.99, every other retailer has to explain why its chicken costs more.

That is enormously powerful.

Costco isn't merely selling chicken.

It is selling a definition of value.

2. Costco has vertically integrated the chicken equation

Costco's Nebraska poultry operation was created specifically to help control the economics and supply of its rotisserie chicken program. The facility processes enormous volumes of poultry and gives Costco a level of supply-chain control that most supermarket competitors simply cannot replicate.

That matters because the real battle isn't just over the price on the deli sign.

It is over:

bird cost + processing + labor + packaging + transportation + shrink + merchandising + margin.

Costco has spent years building the infrastructure around the chicken.

3. The chicken is a traffic driver, not merely a deli item

This may be the most important point.

Costco doesn't necessarily need to make its money on the chicken.

The chicken gets the consumer into the warehouse, and the warehouse then gets the opportunity to sell everything else.

That is the classic loss-leader/grocerant traffic-driver strategy.

And it works particularly well because the product solves an immediate meal problem.

“What's for dinner?”

Costco has an answer.

For $4.99.

Walmart's Response: If You Can't Beat the Packaging, Join It

Here is where the story gets interesting.

Walmart has long had an enormous rotisserie-chicken business of its own. The retailer has reported selling 103 rotisserie chickens per minute, and Walmart says approximately one in every 12 Walmart customers purchases at least one rotisserie chicken each year.

So Walmart does not have a chicken problem.

It has a brand-positioning problem.

Costco owns the narrative of the inexpensive, oversized, iconic rotisserie chicken.

Walmart has the scale to compete—but it needs to make its own chicken culturally relevant.

And that is where the packaging—and now the purse—comes in.

Three reasons Walmart was effectively forced toward Costco-style packaging economics

First: cost pressure.

Flexible packaging can use substantially less material and occupy less space than rigid clamshell packaging. Costco's own packaging analysis demonstrates the potential scale of those savings.

For a retailer selling chicken at enormous volume, pennies matter.

Second: operational efficiency.

Flexible packaging is easier to store and transport and takes up less space than rigid containers. That can influence transportation, storage, handling and refrigeration economics.

When you are operating at Walmart scale, small efficiencies become big numbers.

Third: consumers increasingly want food that travels.

This is the larger Grocerant lesson.

Today's fresh-prepared food isn't necessarily eaten standing next to the deli counter.

It is taken home.

It is carried to work.

It is used in another meal.

It becomes sandwiches, salads, tacos, casseroles, soups and snacks.

FMI reports that 53% of consumers describe their typical meal preparation as a mix of scratch-cooked and semi- or fully prepared foods.

That is precisely where rotisserie chicken becomes more than dinner.

It becomes a meal component.

Walmart's Chicken Purse Is Actually More Strategic Than It Looks

At first glance, Walmart's new Chicken Purse is just fun.

The retailer launched limited-edition purses in Traditional and Lemon Pepper "flavors" for $5.97—the same price as its rotisserie chicken. It also introduced chicken-themed charms and Great Value hot-sauce and seasoning charms.

The purse reportedly generated enough demand to sell out quickly, creating a secondary-market buzz almost immediately.

But the real marketing genius isn't the purse.

It is this:

Walmart is taking a food product and turning it into a brand asset.

Walmart says its rotisserie chicken generated more than 15,000 social mentions during the previous year.

That is exactly what food retailers want.

A product that consumers don't merely purchase.

A product consumers talk about.

But Walmart Is Now Stuck in the Middle

And this is where I believe Walmart needs to be careful.

Walmart has successfully joined the rotisserie-chicken conversation.

But it risks becoming stuck in the middle.

There are three reasons.

1. Costco owns the extreme-value halo

Costco's $4.99 chicken is almost impossible to attack directly without attacking Costco's entire business model.

Walmart's $5.97 chicken is still an exceptional value, but it isn't the same value proposition.

Costco says:

“Look how much chicken you get for $4.99.”

Walmart says:

“Look how much fun our chicken is.”

Those are different messages.

2. Walmart cannot win the specialty-food experience simply by being cheaper

This is where Walmart encounters retailers such as Publix, Kroger and Albertsons.

These competitors can emphasize fresh-food quality, deli merchandising, meal solutions, regional preferences, prepared sides and broader supermarket meal occasions.

The battlefield is therefore moving from:

“Who sells the cheapest chicken?”

to:

“Who owns the entire meal occasion?”

That is a much more interesting battle.

3. Walmart risks becoming famous for the chicken without owning the meal

The chicken purse proves Walmart understands the power of the product.

But the next step is more important.

What does Walmart sell with the chicken?

Potato salad?

Fresh vegetables?

Macaroni and cheese?

Bakery rolls?

Salad?

Dessert?

Beverages?

A family meal bundle?

A two-person dinner?

A lunch solution?

A next-day sandwich solution?

This is where Walmart has an enormous opportunity.

Because the future of retail food isn't necessarily selling more whole chickens.

It is selling more meals built around the chicken.

The Real Grocery Battle Is Becoming Grocerant

FMI's research makes the opportunity particularly clear.

Its 2025 Power of Foodservice at Retail report found that consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans—53%—now take a hybrid approach to meals, combining deli-prepared foods with items prepared at home. Retail foodservice dollar sales reached $52.1 billion, up 1.6% over the prior 12 months.

That is the Grocerant Revolution in one paragraph.

The grocery store is no longer simply competing with the restaurant for ingredients.

It is competing for the meal occasion.

And rotisserie chicken is one of the best weapons in that battle.

FMI also points directly to rotisserie chicken as an example of how consumers use a prepared food as the foundation for multiple meals—including salads, sandwiches and casseroles.

That is why I believe Walmart's Chicken Purse is amusing—but the real opportunity is sitting in the deli.

Three Grocerant Guru® Insights for Walmart

1. Stop selling the chicken. Start selling the meal ecosystem.

Walmart should build highly visible “Build Your Meal Around Our Chicken” merchandising.

The chicken becomes the protein anchor.

Then Walmart sells the sides, salad, bread, beverage and dessert.

That transforms a $5.97 transaction into a much larger basket.

2. Make the packaging part of the brand—not just part of the operation.

Costco demonstrated that packaging can influence cost, logistics and consumer conversation.

Walmart should make its rotisserie packaging instantly recognizable and use it consistently across its ecosystem.

The Chicken Purse demonstrates that Walmart already understands the power of visual recognition.

Now apply that thinking to the actual food.

3. Own the “tonight + tomorrow” meal occasion.

This is perhaps Walmart's biggest opportunity.

A rotisserie chicken should generate multiple consumption occasions.

Tonight: chicken + two sides.

Tomorrow: chicken sandwich.

Next day: chicken salad.

Later: chicken soup, tacos or casserole.

That is how fresh-prepared food becomes a grocery growth engine rather than simply a deli department.

The Bottom Line

The Walmart Chicken Purse may look like a novelty.

I see something different.

I see a retailer recognizing that food can become culture, packaging can become marketing, and a prepared-food item can become a brand.

Costco didn't invent the rotisserie chicken.

It didn't invent the flexible packaging bag, either.

But Costco did something more important:

It built one of retail's most powerful food-value propositions around the chicken.

Walmart now appears to be saying:

“If you can't beat them, join them—and then make it Walmart.”

The question is whether Walmart stops at the chicken purse.

Because the real money isn't hanging from a shoulder.

It is sitting in the shopping cart next to the chicken.

And that is where the next great grocerant battle will be fought.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter