Some of America’s Top Chicken Purveyors Are Under Investigation for Price Fixing | Hacker News Reader

Some of America’s Top Chicken Purveyors Are Under Investigation for Price Fixing

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83 pointssmacktoward46 comments

this is pretty amazing. i buy a lot of costco canned chicken. it's usually $10 for 6cans, 7oz of chicken each can. that's like $3.80 a pound. i know that cans have additional packaging costs but fresh chicken isn't too much more than that, you can usually get it for $6/lb.

i feel like canned chicken should be far below fresh in price. who knows how old these cans are? or how many chickens are actually in each can? the ability to inventory should keep the price pretty constant

Those are some crazy prices. Fresh chicken goes for around 2.50/lb in the South US.

I can get breasts for $1.60/lb here in bulk

$0.50-$1.00 a lb for leg quarters/thighs/drumsticks if you know where to look although good organic fresh whole chicken can be had for $4.75-$5.35 a lb. (Southern US)

I guess you are buying inorganic chicken :-)

Who would buy organic, canned, chicken? Seems like the demographics for "canned meat" and "organic food" are completely opposite.

Why? Canning isn't at odds with the organic movement is it? I see lots of canned organic vegetables available for sale.

Maybe for the people who don't understand what 'organic' actually means and thinks it is some kind of code for 'fake chemically stuff'. Canning is old technology, before cheap jars and cans we just made potted meat which was a clay pot sealed with butter or lard. Glass, metal, and wax are just better replacements for lard and butter.

No, it's local organic chicken. And wow, it does make a difference! Buy a bag of say, Tyson chicken breasts and it's like they came from a totally different animal.

i swear like 4-5 years ago it was commonly $4 and organic/free range/memory foam pillow raised chicken was like $7. now the fancy chicken is like $9. its ridiculous. i'm talking only breasts here, thighs/legs you can get cheaper. haven't seen breast meat for less than $2.50 in almost 10 years

Isn’t that 5% inflation over 5 years? Seems high as that’s about double the US target, but within reason assuming some confirmation bias (increase price gap and reduce duration) and other market lag.

I live in a HCOL part of the west coast and I usually eat drumsticks and thighs which are $1-1.70/lb when buying larger packs (3lb+)

Best bet with Costco is to get the rotisserie chicken, pull the meat off yourself, vacuum seal and freeze at home. Usually the lowest price you'll find for chicken.

NOTE: I also freeze the bones/skin etc separately for making broth/stock.

That's because Costco loses money on every rotisserie bird sold.

While it's possible, I'm not sure I believe that, they probably have a lot of purchasing power, and while I don't think they have huge margins, I'm not sure it's at a loss without actually seeing invoices.

Or, buy one of the nineteen different prepared entrees they sell featuring shredded chicken.

i absolutely love cleaning a costco chicken. i take pride in it. i do not wear gloves. some people challenge themselves to do something good in the world every day. i challenge myself to get as much meat off that carcass as i possibly can

Because I make broth/stock with the bones, I don't do too well on cleaning it off, the bits of meat left on help with the broth. Also, I don't bother clearing the wings, putting them in the broth bag or I'll eat the wings right after.

My impression was that modern delivery chains are so efficient that the premium for freshness is very small. I thought the bulk of the cost was just the chicken.

If you're cheap, Walmart commonly has breasts for $2/lb. Which seems insanely cheap.

I refuse to spend more than 99 cents/lb on chicken. Buy it when I find it and freeze it, never had any issues.

but is it... good?

They aren't selling you just chicken, they are selling you the convenience of shelf-stable canned chicken. If you wanted fresh/frozen/cooked chicken, you'd just buy that but instead you buy the canned chicken and you're willing to pay a premium for it for the convenience -- and Costco knows that.

A 25 cent can of soda sold at Costco is almost entirely sugar and water, you could buy a 25 pound bag of sugar and mix up some sugar water at home for a few pennies. (ok, so technically most soda uses HFCS, not sugar)

You forgot the carbonation, canning, flavoring, and preservatives.

I only included the main ingredient, just as the canned chicken is just chicken with misc seasonings and preservatives, soda is just sugar water with misc seasonings and preservatives.

When you're buying a soda the seasoning is the main ingredient. No one advertises their soda with "now with 30% more sugar!" and no one chooses a soda by looking at how much sugar they get pr $. They do however advertise with "now with new seasonings" all the time.

I pay $2 a pound for boneless skinless thighs.

I guess there are usually breasts sitting next to it for the same price or a bit cheaper, but they are dry and tasteless.

> they are dry and tasteless

I often prefer thighs too, but if you're stuck, you can avoid dry/tasteless breasts if you use a lower heat for most of the cooking process, then blast briefly at higher heat for a rich malliard.

Also, season more aggressively than you expect. A chicken breast is not a steak, you need to work it a bit more for best results. Salt both early and late in the process, consider using a bit of garlic or onion in the oil, or go all the way and add something bold like sriracha before it hits the pan. Dusting with a mixture of flour and a spice blend like old bay is another good approach.

Didn't expect to see cooking advice on hn today. Thanks!

I didn't even know canned chicken was a thing.

Why...

Do you mean why does canned chicken exist? I imagine the same reason why other canned meats/foods exist: easy storage for months or years at room temperature while being ready to eat immediately on opening.

It's basically the same as canned tuna. In fact, since both are massively overcooked, they're barely distinguishable.

>The suit alleges that these companies used a subscription service called Agri Stats to share information with each other about the age of their chickens and operating costs.

Is AgriStats just another industry BI data vendor or is it some messaging/forum platform as well?

Obligatory Matt Levine link: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-26/everyt... (search "chicken")

"America's Top Chicken" sounds like an awesome reality show

I do find it interesting that Chicken seems to be more than Beef, and a lot more than Pork lately. I've just been having more pork and beef anyway.

You mean “more” as in higher prices per pound? If so, what cuts?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen chicken prices anywhere near a decent cut of beef. Plus the best parts, the dark meat, is cheaper than the tasteless breast.

What?

Even the cheapest ground beef still costs more per pound than most chicken assuming you make a reasonably even comparison between form factors.

They covered this in the series rotten on Netflix. The chickens suffer and the farmers suffer but the corporation profits.

> the price of broiler chickens jumped by 50 percent between 2008 to 2016, despite the fact that cost of feeding the chickens went down during this period.

If costs to down and price go up and there is no increase in demand there is a problem.

> Three of these companies — Sanderson, Tyson, and Pilgrim’s Pride — control nearly half the American chicken market

This sums up XXI century capitalism. Olygopolies control everything leaving consumers or even business with just a couple of options. It's easier to fix prices that way as it's easier to increase profit thru cooperation that to risk a competition war.

We need an economy of worker owned cooperatives. It won’t solve every problem but it would solve some problems. A few executives are more likely to screw over the public than a large collection of workers.

This was a plot device in Billions.. funny.

These puffed up, cocky bastards sure think they rule the roost.

I'm fine with pun threads, but this feels overdone and not funny, at least to me.

This reminds me of the movie "The Informant". Good movie.

That's about all I have to contribute to this conversation.

I enjoyed that movie and never have I said “What is going on???” more times than watching that movie.

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