Shopper complains about selling 'woody' chicken in Costco, so the CEO himself stepped up to address it

With its promise of great quality, customers expect Costco to hold up their side of the bargain. While members are expected to complain at the store, one customer took a bold step by emailing their issues with the store's chicken to the CEO, Ron Vachris. More surprisingly, the CEO responded to the complaint as well. That's some customer service!

Costco's 'woody crunchy' chicken 

The customer shared their story on Costco's Reddit forum r/Costco describing what they had mailed and the response they got. In the screenshot of the email, the customer explains that they have been eating chicken breasts for several years and they switched to Costco a few months back, as the quality was better.

The customer adds that there were no issues initially except for some occasionally bad chicken. Costco's $4.99 rotisserie chickens are fairly popular. Back in January, CEO Vachris revealed that the company sold 137 million rotisserie chickens in 2023, which was 20 million more than the previous year, the New York Post reported. 

They then complained of a "woody" (i.e. tough, fibrous, and slightly crunchy) texture that's especially common in larger chicken breasts The shopper said that over the past few months, the amount of "jello crunchy woody chicken breasts" per pack has "dramatically" increased. The complaint claimed that it was so bad that the customer couldn't eat beyond 8 ounces at a point. "I'm training myself to ignore my gag reflex," the dissatisfied customer writes. In the end, he requests the CEO to look into the issue and hopefully take it up with the supplier.  

The comments on the post confirmed the issues of the Redditor. Several other users echoed the same concerns sharing scientific evidence as well. "Oof my man, I can relate so much I felt this in my bones," wrote u/The_Greek_. 

The CEO doesn't like it either

In the second screenshot of the post, the Costco shopper shared the response from the President and CEO of the company. Vachris acknowledged the customer's concerns and apologized for the issue they were facing. "We will look into it right away," the CEO wrote. 

He further informed the customer that they are "entitled" to get a full refund for any below-par quality product that has been sold to them. The top exec's response shocked several Redditors as no one expected him to respond to such trivial complaints. "That’s definitely more of a response than I would expect from most CEOs!" wrote u/naynayfresh.

This isn't the first time this year that Costco shoppers complained about its chicken. Earlier this year, when the company changed the packaging of its mega-popular "Kirkland Signature™ Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken", it caused an uproar on social media. The company switched to a plastic bag style packaging from their signature "clamshell" container in a bid to reduce plastic waste and shipping costs, reported the magazine Consumer Reports.

Customers expressed their displeasure with the new packaging, claiming it was extremely leaky and poor for storing leftovers, and it made it difficult for customers to pick and choose the good chicken as they were barely visible. "This is a rare Costco L," wrote one user,  Trung Phan posted on X, (formerly Twitter). 

 On Costco's Reddit forum, several other shoppers complained that it did no good with their cause as the new bags were not recyclable in many cities but the previous containers were.