美国国家公共电台 NPR--Inflation is raising prices on almost everything, except rotisserie chicken

Inflation is raising prices on almost everything, except rotisserie chicken

Transcript¹

Inflation is raising the price of all sorts of items in the grocery store, but one staple² appears to be immune: rotisserie chicken.

That's not to say the poultry³ industry isn't suffering from soaring costs. Chicken prices nationwide have increased 16.4% in the year to April, according to the Consumer Price Index. And pointing to the ongoing⁴ bird flu outbreak, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts wholesale⁵ poultry prices will increase 15-18% this year.

But stores including Costco, BJ's and Sam's Club are keeping their rotisserie chicken prices low — $5 or less. Other chains, like Publix and Giant Eagle, remain in the $7 range.

Ernest Baskin, an associate professor of food marketing⁶ at Saint Joseph's University, tells Morning Edition that it's an example of loss leader pricing, a marketing strategy in which companies sell certain products below their market cost in order to get shoppers in the door — and, oftentimes, other higher-priced goods into their baskets.

Rotisserie chicken is a loss leader: visible and affordable⁷

"It is a way of the store giving you a discount on a very highly prominent item and then making up the money on some of the other items in the store," he explains.

The prices of most goods are going up at every grocery store, Baskin adds, so retailers⁸ are trying to differentiate⁹ themselves by running discounts on items that are especially attractive to customers. In the case of stores such as BJ's and Costco, that's the beloved $4.99 rotisserie chicken.

During an earnings¹⁰ call last month, BJ's CEO Bob Eddy¹¹ said the store has kept the low price "just because it's such a meaningful thing to our members." He said the chain makes similar investments in other "key member value items" like paper and water.

Rotisserie chickens in particular are a marketable combination of visible and affordable, Baskin notes.

"It's also in the store an aura of saying, 'Look, our prices are generally very low. We don't raise them unless we absolutely have to,' " he says. "They're giving a cheapness aura to the store, which is helpful for consumers when they're concerned about their spending power."

Even if shoppers are filling their carts with other goods that have gone up in price, he adds, they're likely feeling somewhat better because they've saved money on at least one highly visible item.

Grocery stores put the best-value stuff in the back for a reason

And once shoppers are inside, they'll typically have to traverse multiple aisles¹² to get to the chicken — passing lots of other products along the way. That's no coincidence.

"The store really wants you to walk through the store, see what other items the store has, and ideally either consider putting them in your basket or actually take the step of putting them in your basket," Baskin says.

Costco sells rotisserie chickens at the back of its stores for this reason. Keeping rotisserie prices low is so crucial to the company that it even opened a poultry plant in 2019 in order to supply its own birds to its stores, as CNN Business reports. The Nebraska facility processes more than 100 million chickens a year.

And chicken isn't the only prepared food that Costco famously sells at a discount. Costco executive Bob Nelson took a moment during last month's earnings call to clear up a rumor¹³ that the chain was increasing the price of a food-court favorite.

"The price, when we introduced the hot dog-soda combo in the mid-'80s, was $1.50," he said. "The price today is $1.50, and we have no plans to increase the price at this time."

The audio for this story was produced by Ben Abrams and edited by Ally Schweitzer.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

3 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

4 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

5 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

6 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

7 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

8 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

9 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

10 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

11 eddy   

n.漩涡，涡流

参考例句：

• The motor car disappeared in eddy of dust.汽车在一片扬尘的涡流中不见了。
• In Taylor's picture,the eddy is the basic element of turbulence.在泰勒的描述里，旋涡是湍流的基本要素。

12 aisles   

n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊

参考例句：

• Aisles were added to the original Saxon building in the Norman period. 在诺曼时期，原来的萨克森风格的建筑物都增添了走廊。
• They walked about the Abbey aisles, and presently sat down. 他们走到大教堂的走廊附近，并且很快就坐了下来。

13 rumor   

n.谣言，谣传，传说

参考例句：

• The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
• The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。