Rotisserie chickens in the trash: I worked in a supermarket and saw shocking food waste every day | Ann Larson

T o most grocery shoppers, rotisserie chickens look like a mouth-watering and easy option for dinner. But whenever I pass by the rotisserie case in a supermarket, I see chicken carcasses piled up in the trash, their once glistening juices congealing into a slimy jelly. It all started when I was working as a cashier in a chain supermarket. One day, I was chatting with a colleague about the behind-the-scenes secrets that shoppers didn’t see. The deli employee said, “Last night we tossed out about sixteen birds.” He explained that managers wanted the rotisserie chicken case to be full at all times because a full case looked appetizing, while a half empty one looked sad. Keeping the case full was an all-day affair. Workers arrived before dawn to season and roast dozens of birds. (One employee burned his arm while maneuvering chickens into the oven. He quit soon after.) The seasoning and roasting continued throughout the day. As birds disappeared from the display case, workers replaced them. Finally, the store closed, and the leftover chickens were thrown out. Joining the conversation, a bakery employee told me that he was frustrated that between one and two cartloads of fresh bread were tossed out every night. I asked him why the bakery produced more bread than it could sell. “To make the shelves look full!” he said. It turned out that the rotisserie chicken strategy applied across the store. …