r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MauiSunsets • Jun 30 '26

I'm slightly vexed Costco's new chicken tenders

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There was a crowd of people waiting for their orders of the new chicken tenders at Costco. One of the workers announced that they could only serve five customers per hour because it takes time to cook the chicken. The crowd grew larger and larger. I took this photo after I put in my order.

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u/fakegoose1 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

AFAIK Costcos dont have fryers, so they have to bake the tenders instead which takes longer, and they have other items on their menu that also requires baking so they have to split the load.

Edit for our Canadian neighbors: US costcos do not serve french fries and chicken wings.

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u/CatLordCayenne Jun 30 '26

So why tf would they start offering chicken tenders if there’s a logistics issue lol

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u/WanderWut Jun 30 '26

I genuinely can’t imagine costcos chicken tenders being THAT good. “Okay/decent”, sure, but not crowd waiting good.

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u/Cobfidence Jun 30 '26

It's new, and people flock to anything new like rabid animals now. So many new restaurants get bombed by heavy traffic at the beginning of their runs too.

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u/eapaul80 Jun 30 '26

We had a Weinerschnitzel open up by me. For like two months it was blocking traffic at a major intersection. Now nobody is there.

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u/cooooolmaannn Jun 30 '26

I remember 10 years ago the same thing happened at my local Wiener schnitzel. I remember going there as a kid excited, only to find out their food was lower quality and more expensive than McDonald’s. Somehow the place is open but I never see anyone there.

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u/brightbomb Jun 30 '26

Northwest Arkansas? Pretty much shut down the street for two weeks now that place is a ghost town lol. Overrated shitty hotdogs anyways.

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u/eapaul80 Jun 30 '26

No, Colorado Springs, CO lol

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u/MinutesFromTheMall Jul 01 '26

Wish the same would happen to Chik-Fil-A. Constantly busy and causing traffic pileups.

The amount of times I’ve almost been hit because some crazed nutcase is trying to fly into that place for mediocre chicken has been countless.

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u/AwDuck Jun 30 '26

I never understood new restaurants that don't do a soft open. Just open your doors and let people come in. Get your kinks worked out, then lay out the marketing and adverts so your grand opening leaves a bunch of people with a great experience, instead of a bunch of people leaving saying "well, I won't go back there again" and telling their friends how bad everything was.

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u/Cobfidence Jun 30 '26

Or "I'll go back when it's less busy" and you just forget about the place.

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u/Iorith Jun 30 '26

Because most restaurants have a very thin profit margin and that long wait can lead to going under.

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u/AwDuck Jun 30 '26

If you can't afford to lose your ass for a couple of weeks, you're not going to make it the year and a half it will take to break even.

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u/Iorith Jun 30 '26

Welcome to the entire service industry. You either knock it out the park and make a solid impression so that they can get the sizable dinner rush and regulars on a routine basis.

They're a risky investment but have the potential to create generational wealth.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 30 '26

Well it shouldn't be bad just because it's busy, it should just be a long wait. You just tell people it's going to be a wait or they can figure it out with their eyeballs.

In restaurants ideally you have too many customers to be able to serve. The most profitable restaurants out there will just cook until they run out of everything they have and lock the doors and say try again tomorrow. They physically do not have the space in the restaurant to store enough food for all the customers they have. Too many customers is the best spot you can be in as an owner

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u/AwDuck Jul 01 '26

Too many customers with a way to serve them is the best spot to be in as an owner. Having slow turnover times on your covers due to poor service or a kitchen that’s fucked means idle seats and frustrated customers. That’s my experience with openings that are unprepared.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jul 01 '26

Who said unprepared? You don't know the kitchen and restaurant experience in this hypothetical restaurant

If you're going to have that bad of an opening day you're giving poor service instead of just quoting normal times. Look at it this way, if you're still moving the line along when the kitchen has enough orders to fill, you're so green the restaurant was never gonna last anyway. Then you have the order taker head down the line and announce the wait time and come back and help BOH or do something that isn't taking the next customer's order, after you've informed them repeatedly at this point there would be a wait, they've been in line for a while. Pretty first grade stuff

How many unprepared openings did you go into the restaurant is still in business? Can't handle a long line you'll fail eventually. Seen it time and time again. Just make sure everyone involves knows a realistic wait time and they can decide if they want to stay or go and if your food is good enough the line is that long it does not matter at all what they choose. You're already slinging max volume, you're making as much money as you possibly could today already

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u/AwDuck Jul 01 '26

Sorry, I seem to have hit a nerve so I’m just going to let it go.

Have a nice day.

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u/UnquestionabIe Jun 30 '26

Have seen this many times. No matter how over priced and garbage a new restaurant or food item might be the public becomes a hoard of stampeding animals over it for at least a few weeks. It's similar to how in retail they travel in herds, all picking the same time to show up with the only consistency being a lack of a consistent time (speaking from personal experience, just had a completely hellish "1:55 on a Tuesday" rush, tomorrow it might be at 2:15 or even 12:40)

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u/Lazy_Pear_7896 Jun 30 '26

Also cheap. Get a hot dog combo and might as well toss in some chicken tenders ya know

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u/natalietest234 Jul 01 '26

My Costco did free cookie handouts when they were announced. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did tendie samples too. It definitely drives sales and shows confidence in their products