The American Farm Bureau price estimation for the Thanksgiving Day basic foodstuffs seems underestimated every year. However, this year with grocery store prices jumping dramatically the basic Thanksgiving Dinner as calculated is up 20% [Data Here]
(AFB) – Spending time with family and friends at Thanksgiving remains important for many Americans and this year the cost of the meal is also top of mind. Farm Bureau’s 37th annual survey provides a snapshot of the average cost of this year’s classic Thanksgiving feast for 10, which is $64.05 or less than $6.50 per person. This is a $10.74 or 20% increase from last year’s average of $53.31.
The centerpiece on most Thanksgiving tables – the turkey – costs more than last year, at $28.96 for a 16-pound bird. That’s $1.81 per pound, up 21% from last year, due to several factors beyond general inflation. (read more)
On the positive side of things, we note two points: #1) the third wave of food inflation should crest the beginning of December; and #2) a lot of readers here were proactive and purchased holiday ingredients long before the massive price increases showed up. Great job.
.
Although, as WeeWeed has noticed, this year is making everyone a little spicy…
I am making lasagna and cheesecake and buying the salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden. Just my husband and me and 2 friends. So much more relaxing without all the fuss. But I do miss the big Thanksgiving dinners of my youth.
Yep, low key here too, and no special shopping. Corned beef from Brazil, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, sliced pickled beets, rice pilaf and a fresh baked apple pie. No complaints.
Where do they get these figures? Our 16# turkey cost $55 at Kroger. We spent $145 on groceries for dinner for 6 people.
Well done, grandma!
$64.05 for ten people? Did I read that correctly? What a joke.
Try double or triple that price.
They’re leftards. Probably eat beans and rice while cursing the white colonists.
I’m shopping at the wrong places
Sounds true to me. Different stores have different sales and they keep changing all the time.
It’s a scavenger hunt this year.
I bought my turkey for 0.49c/lb at Publix. At WalMart,the price is .98c/lb.
So Publix must be doing something other grocery stores aren’t. Perhaps a “giveback” to the community?
Turkey has been 79¢ per lb for weeks here in AZ. FOX news railing about the cost of turkey looks foolish. Or maybe the price is artificially low so we don’t protest the merger of Kroger and Albertsons? Yes we have to purchase$25 of other food to get the deal but that’s really easy to accomplish if you have the $25.
BTW,Winn-Dixie has turkeys for .49c/lb,but you have to buy $30 of other groceries to get that price.
This is central Florida,Orlando-area.
Not disputing general inflation, but at Stop and Shop in RI, frozen turkeys are 49 cents a pound. Check for bargains, guys.
Agree the cost of turkey the only bright spot. My local Stoppy and Shaws/ Albertsons had price wars so I paid .47 lb.
Yesterday, I called my local grocer to ask if it was too late to order the prepared Thanksgiving Dinner. I missed the cut off day by one day. Then I asked about how much the meal would cost for 5 people. I almost dropped the phone – $125.00. Glad I missed it. The only reason I was checking is that my daughter – I sometimes call her Job – is insanely busy and stressed because she just paid $1,000 because her dog somehow injured his tail. I’m glad that Thanksgiving is NOT about food. It is about gathering and giving Thanks to the Almighty Creator of the Universe.
Bought my 8 pound frozen turkey breast for just over $12 last week. It really was a deal considering the week before at Winco I bought a 3 pound for over $12 Honeysuckle frozen turkey breast. Different stores different sales.
Albertson’s in Idaho – last year fresh organic turkey was $2.99 per pound this year $3.99/lb. That ain’t looking like 20% to me.
Will the lies ever stop? On every, even the most seemingly innocuous topic, there are lies everywhere. I guess, all part of the government’s ‘nudge’ policy towards fulfilling their agenda.
So will the lies ever stop? No. But at least we now know that much. That’s a start.
Really? I’ve never ever fixed a dinner of anything for ten people for $64.05!!
On what planet do these people dwell? The deserts I bought this year were more than the Farm Bureau’s dinner total…
Please also consider that heavy appetizers for a small business Christmas party this year are upwards of $12-$15 a head…
this of course does not include, space rental, music, decorations or any add ones. In a very competitive independent contractor environment it’s important to recruitment and growth to maintain the appearance of a certain level of success.
Not to mention astronomical price of eggs to make those custards and desserts. The sourdough I buy at the market to make stuffing is 4.79 a loaf, up almost $2 over last year. Bogo sales are helpful but not when the first bag of potatoes you pay for is 6.99 a bag. Butter well over $5 lb for store brand. I try not to complain but get so irritated with the media narrative of “inflation slowing down”.
We bought a turkey at Publix and price seemed reasonable.
Maybe it is not as bad as it seems. I wonder.
Don’t Believe What You Read About Turkey InflationThis Thanksgiving, everything’s gravy.BY HENRY GRABAR
NOV 22, 20221:26 PM
There’s just one problem: Retail whole frozen turkey prices were at just $1 a pound last week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Retail Report of 29,200 supermarkets. So, that’s $16 for a 16-pound bird—not $29. It’s a big enough difference to erase the entire $10.74 price jump between the cost of this year’s Thanksgiving and last’s that constitutes the Farm Bureau’s main finding. According to the USDA, the price per pound is 7 cents higher than last year—almost perfectly in line with the broader CPI inflation figure of 7.7 percent—and a good deal below the broader year-over-year grocery inflation mark of 12 percent.
What’s going on here?
Why does the Farm Bureau think turkey costs twice as much as the USDA says it does? And why don’t journalists cry, um, fowl?
One culprit might be the Farm Bureau’s methodology—the organization relies on 224 surveys conducted by volunteers shopping in person and online, in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. It’s an “informal survey,” by the group’s own admission, and might be subject to regional and local pricing quirks—per pound, whole frozen turkey prices vary by a factor of six between the most expensive stores and the cheapest ones.
https://slate.com/business/2022/11/turkey-prices-thanksgiving-inflation-farm-bureau-debunked-wrong.html?sid=61ab5c3a426fde390632941d&email=0d544630d31e0f9304053a7a76322fb660baee17f57a6f21fb9a200888bac946&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=TheSlatest
The problem is that you know nothing about loss leaders, products that are at or below their (Kroger + others) cost intentionally.
Loss leaders are products that they intentionally put at the far back of the store so that you must walk many other high margin prices to get to them for impulse purchases.
Typically bread, milk, eggs, turkey, butter…… they run them on “sale” just to get you in the door for your other purchases particularity the “impulse purchases” that have a really high margin.
Farm Bureau is more than likely using the “suggested retail price / regular price”. Not sale prices or discounted prices.
(EDIT: I see they are using volunteer surveys….. victims of not knowing or caring about “sale” prices or random loss leaders being included, they are not all buying at “sale” prices some are buying are non sale prices and also brand name prices such as butterball for turkey).
For example: I just purchased a 4lb new york strip roast, daily price on said roast is 12.99 per pound, 7.97 on sale and 5.97 per lb with the digital discount coupon. (limit 2) So 51.96 down to 31.88 then to 23.88. I kept an eye on them all this week and enjoying it as I write this, people are not buying them even at that price ….. four 1lb new york strip steaks @ 6 bucks apiece… much better price than hitting an Outback for me.
Same with turkey… I did not buy one but it is on “sale” right now for .99 but only with a 25 dollar or more purchase… they hope you purchase a high margin item, in the past turkeys were on sale for .69 or less also with same 25 dollar purchase…. a 43.5 % increase from the past…..
Figures lie and liars figure.
That is kinda the point in retail marketing.