Move over avocado toast, because there’s a new “this is why you’re broke” scapegoat in town: supermarket rotisserie chicken.
A Wall Street Journal article has gone viral among millennials recently for one insanely dumb remark. The article is about outrageously overpriced luxury New York grocery stores where rich millennial and Gen Z influencers pick up prepared meals, which wouldn’t be so bad if it was to gawk at the excess of those particular wealthy shoppers. (One store in the Hamptons sells $65 tote bags, like come on.) But in true hating-on-young-people fashion, the article makes sweeping generalizations while also calling out one particular weird thing: rotisserie chicken.
“Gen Zers and millennials are swimming in student debt and may never own homes,” the WSJ article says, “but they’re splurging on gut-healthy juices and rotisserie chickens.”
Of all the crazy overpriced things the authors of the article could have chosen from, they went with rotisserie chicken? The thing that’s famously $5 at every Costco and Sam’s Club in the country? That’s what they’re considering a “splurge”?
‘OMG, They’re Buying Food!’
The backlash against the WSJ has been swift over that one line in the article. Most people see this as the new avocado toast, an example boomers point to constantly as to why young people can’t afford a home. As if not buying a $12 breakfast food once in a while will somehow fix the housing crisis that has pushed the median single family home price in the U.S. to over $420,000 in recent years.
“‘OMG, they’re buying food!’” said one Redditor in a thread about the WSJ article, paraphrasing the gist of it. “‘No wonder they can’t afford rent or buy a house!’”
“Oh? Has avocado toast gotten TOO expensive for us peons, so now they have to shame us for buying rotisserie chicken and discussing how to make it stretch across several meals?” responded someone else.
“In 10 years they’ll be saying, ‘look at all these spoiled brats whining about the fact that they’ll never retire or own a house while splurging on onions to make their fancy onion soup!” lamented one commenter. “A whole onion per meal, can you imagine?!”
Lots of people are also pointing out that the Wall Street Journal readers and employees are more likely than average to be wealthy themselves and don’t understand that most grocery store rotisserie chickens are actually the opposite of a splurge. “A rotisserie chicken? How much do those cost?” quipped one Redditor. “One hundred dollars?”
Of course, most people are calling out how absurd it is to consider one of the most economical ways to feed your family healthy protein as a splurge. “Rotisserie chicken, aka one of the cheapest loss leader meals available? HOW DECADENT OF US!”
This whole thing has the same air of condescension and absolute obliviousness as the U.S. Agriculture Secretary’s recent foray into healthy, inexpensive food recommendations. “But they told us we were allowed to have a piece of chicken and a tortilla and a stalk of broccoli and one other thing!” That’s exactly what young people are doing, but it’s still not good enough.
More From Cheapism
- People Are Sharing Grocery Store Receipts From the ’90s, and We’re Officially Depressed — Ah, remember a time when the cost of vegetables were in cents, not dollars?
- 14 Sneaky Grocery Store Tricks That Turn ‘Just One Thing’ Into $120 — From the store scents to the positioning of items, these 14 tricks might just seem like a typical part of the shopping experience, but they’re actually driving up your grocery bill.
- ‘No More Chips’: 9 Grocery Items People Say Are Officially Not Worth It Anymore — More and more people are forced to choose between items that were once basics but now cost as much as luxury goods.
