TBH, Just Watching Costco's Rotisserie Chicken Cook Stresses Us Out
Just like its $1.50 hot dog and drink combo, Costco's rotisserie chicken is a budget-friendly staple that people can't get enough of. In 2022, the warehouse sold around 117 million birds. At just $4.99 each, the seasoned, ready-to-eat poultry offers buyers a bang for their buck. And with plenty of creative tricks for how to use a rotisserie chicken, it's no wonder everybody wants a piece.
With such high demand for Costco's rotisserie chicken, you might have noticed people waiting around to get their hands on one. People stare as the employees take the piping hot chickens out of the oven and pack them in clamshells. "Costco rotisserie is the highest pressure job in the world," TikToker Michael Wong captioned a video that showed a crowd of customers waiting while watching a Costco employee pull chickens from the oven.
Given the popularity of Costco's rotisserie chicken, it's not hard to imagine how taxing it must be to work in that department. TikTok users commented on the stress-inducing video, sharing their experiences working in similar jobs. "Worked rotisserie, I would just straight up ignore everyone waiting," one user commented. Another wrote, "There's a process we follow, one step is ignoring the line."
Working in Costco's rotisserie chicken room doesn't seem easy
If you thought preparing the rotisserie chicken at Costco was stressful, imagine doing it singlehandedly, as some internet users claim. "One person at a time is how our warehouse does it," one person commented on a Reddit post by user LaMaBean111 discussing the one-person job. "I think that's an insane amount of work for a single person to do, so I left the deli after 6 months and quietly tell anyone who asks to stay away at all costs."
@abovewongart @Costco Wholesale
Another Redditor shared how hard it is to retain employees working in the rotisserie chicken room. "People quit the first day/2 weeks. Send help," they wrote. Someone who had experience working there chimed in, "It has a reputation for being an extremely physically demanding position that most people are not going to be up for. I tried it and knew there was no way after just 20 minutes."
According to Glassdoor, the median hourly pay for a rotisserie cook at Costco was $18 in 2021. However, according to a majority of reviews, working in the rotisserie room is one of the toughest jobs at Costco.