this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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It’s kind of wild how everyday groceries get framed as luxuries. Sometimes people are just trying to eat something convenient and affordable, not make a statement about their finances.
ready to eat hot food is a luxury. it's not groceries. groceries is stuff you have to prep and cook. if you want stuff you don't have to prep, or cook, it's generally going to cost you more, in either value or quality.
it's just that whole foods and other groceries normalized the concept of hot ready to eat meals being served in grocery stores. that was never a thing 20+ years ago. when i was a kid they had a tiny hot bar, and it was shitty. now my local whole foods 1/4 of the store is devoted to this type of product. and it's hugely profitable because people value convenience.
is international travel a luxury or a necessity? where I live, people think it's the latter and if you aren't traveling multiple times per year, they think you are living in poverty. that is regardless of finances and many people are going into debt to travel because they know it's not socially acceptable to not travel. i know 28 year olds making 30K a year who are dropping 5-10K a year traveling.
people's frames of reference for what a 'necessity' in 2026 is not exactly objective.
How is it a luxury if it's cheaper than actual frozen whole chicken?
Ready to eat hot food that is cheaper than the ingredients to make it, is not a luxury.
Especially if it can be refrigerated and made to last for over a week, used to supplement other foods such like chicken quesadillas, chicken soup, broth and chicken salad.
Having to prep and cook is such a narrow minded way to look at things, and a way to look down at what people do to survive.
Does the fact that I can just bite into a tomato and eat it without preparation or cooking make it not a grocery? Hell, I can even do that with oatmeal if I'm down on protein and fiber.
Exactly. Additionally a lot of low income families lack the knowledge of how to properly prepare a chicken, or the equipment to do it well. When the difference is 20¢ a pound for an already seasoned and prepared bird its not really luxury prices. Luxury is like some $50 chicken wrapped in gold bullshit topped with exotic flower pistols.
These aren't properly prepared chickens. They are McChickens. They are fast food that is full of artificial crap to make it taste good.
Low income people eat a lot of fast food because it's an affordable luxury for them. That doesn't mean it's not a luxury, or that it's a good choice to make a regular part of your diet. Especially due to the long affects.
One of the first things you figure out when you get out of being poor is that paying more for food is not a luxury, it's a necessity for a higher quality of life overall. I got this lesson in college, which was the first time it was regularly available to me.
when I was 14 years old and eating shitty food everyday, I thought healthy food was 'gross' and 'crazy expensive'. I was wrong. I was just poor and trapped in a poor person's mindset and had no idea about long term costs because i was consumed with getting things as quickly as possible for as cheap as possible.
You're a troll. Go away.
I agree that a rotisserie is closer to fast food, but I was saying most low income people are lacking any food education to make a properly prepared chicken. Most low income prople who are suffering the effects of dollars a day making a difference also lack the education of the why, where, and how they can prepare equivalent priced meals that are better for them. To some this is all they know.
I also got a lesson in college, a privalidge that you and I were able to afford that some prople genuinely never got the opportunity, and those people are the ones truly suffering from the effect of "luxury" rotisseries.
you can eat however you want.
however engaging in poverty finance is a way to keep yourself in poverty as it prevents you from developing smarter and healthier behaviors around food and persisting in myths and thought patterns that are objectively unhealthy and defeating.
I know this from personal experience. cheap ready to eat food is awful for you and long term does way more damage to your health and fiances than learning to cook healthy food at home. cooking for yourself is objectively healthier as you get to control what goes into your food.
but yeah if you are narrow terms of gratification and raw cost, why not just grind up the chickens into hot protein paste and let the poors eat that? or perhaps we think there is more to life than calories and macronutrients?
since when was 3-4 meals of tasty protein for under $10 considered a luxury?
because it's premade food.
fast food prices used to be similar, was that a healthy smart way to get calories? a burger and fries from mcdonalds used to be 3 bucks or so. for a lot of struggling people, it certainly was a standard option until recently and the one by me is still full of housing project kids everyday.
you didn't answer the question
I did, but you're being a typical lemmy troll who refuses to acknowledge any counter point to your simplified narrative that lacks any context because you want to bite the ragebait that makes you feel morally superior for doing so.
the article is designed to make you upset and troll you by going at your bias that premade grocery store chickens are some sort of nutritional necessity that is liberating people from the doldrums of their suffering at the evils of capitalism... even though it the chickens being sold like this is really an evil of capitalism itself.
you can't have your pre-made chicken rage and eat it too!
In fairness, like the troll you accuse everyone else of being, you have zero proof for your claim that these chickens have somehow been modified to be shittier for you, and that's why they're cheaper.
Sorry you apparently grew up in bumfuck nowhere, pal. The Hannafords in the sticks that I worked at in high school, more than 20 years ago, had plenty of rotisserie chickens, and had them long before I started working there.
You've gone and invented a massive conspiracy that ignores a simple reality. Offering rotisserie chickens as a loss leader is a simple and effective way to a) move whole chickens with minor blemishes and b) get people in the store with the promise of a cheap bird that almost always required you head to the back of the store, where they could count on you seeing several things "I may as well get while I'm here" to make up for whatever loss they sell the rotisserie chickens here.
I've worked in several major grocery stores in different regions, and never encountered any evidence of this nonsense you're so indignant people won't swallow wholeheartedly.
tl;dr: Show some proof or shut the fuck up, you muppet. Your own screeds do not count as proof, let's see some external links.
no, what I'm asking is how a ready to eat food product that is cheaper than the raw materials alternative is considered a luxury in this context
I understand that ready to eat food itself is somewhat of a luxury, but that is not what is being discussed - what is being discussed is the cost of the food.
No no, you see when you pay any amount beyond what is absolutely necessary to survive then you are spoiled by luxury. /S
When the pre-made food is cheaper than uncooked food, how is it a luxury?
You think people should pay more for food, then bitch about people spending too much?
Get the hell out of here.
Also, from your previous comment:
I literally worked at the Deli in a wal mart in small town Ontario 20 years ago when I was in my late teens cooking the rotisserie chicken you're bitching about didn't exist.
You're either trolling everyone here, or a completely disconnected moron.
It is cheaper by weight. Also, it's seasoned, already made, and can make multiple meals. Costvo loses money on rotisserie chicken. Just like they lose money on hotdogs.
Rotisserie Chicken is cheaper than groceries. The expensive "luxury" is the grocery in this case.
Idk what's up with the downvotes. I think you're right, having someone else cook and prepare my food for me IS something I consider a luxury. Same as if someone else cleaned my dishes or did my laundry. I'm not commenting on the "quality" of the food, or the cost, just the idea of someone else cooking and prepping my food for me.