"aem" > wrote in message
...
.......
I don't know, but I've always assumed they were the store's about to
be out of date birds that they cooked up as a way to avoid having to
throw them away. Never occurred to me that they could be a centrally-
produced product. I'll be curious to see what others know.
........

Not at Publix, Whole Foods or Fresh Market. Simply (at least) because
the purchasing is different. In Publix, the chickens for rotisserie are
bought by the Deli. Whole Foods by Prepared Foods. Fresh Market
by Deli. They don't order a crate of chickens and go grab, they are
buying their own while the meat area buys its own. If the Deli has
run out, they can get internal transfers from meat, but the transfer
costs are prohibitive as they have to pay the other department what
markups they would have gained if they had sold the chickens them-
selves. Nah, I don't think that any reputable market would allow old
food to be grabbed by deli and cooked and sold as prepared foods.
Now some of the slummier markets, well who knows. But I think
the big and decent quality guys know what they are doing and how
they are doing it.

pavane