US grocery chains have implemented a new tactic to win customer loyalty: drastically cutting turkey prices. Despite inflation having affected “every grocery aisle”, retailers are offering significant savings on Thanksgiving meal deals.
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. In 2025, this date will fall on Thursday, 27 November.
Its origins date back to 1621, when the first English pilgrims to reach the shores of Massachusetts, having endured a very harsh winter, enjoyed an abundant harvest and organised a feast to give thanks to God, sharing it with the Wampanoag Native Americans who had taught them to farm, fish and hunt. The modern holiday commemorates this meal of gratitude and is a day for reflection and appreciation of life’s blessings.
Primarily a marketing exercise
This strategy is primarily a marketing exercise. The cost of basic shopping basket items has risen by nearly 29% since before the pandemic. Nevertheless, major grocery retailers are hoping that a brief respite from inflation during the festive season will win them loyal shoppers, with some stores absorbing the cost to make it happen. For instance, while the wholesale price of a frozen turkey stands at $1.73 per pound (approximately $3.81 per kg), retailers such as Walmart are selling it at $0.97 per pound (approximately $2.14 per kg). (1 lb ≈ 0.4536 kg)
Specific meal deals
Several chains have announced specific Thanksgiving dinner packages:
- Aldi has announced a $40 package including a 14 lb (6.35 kg) turkey and traditional side dishes to feed 10 people. This price represents a $7 drop compared to last year’s offer.
- Walmart is holding its dinner deal at the same price as last year, around $4 per person for a table of 10. Walmart launched its first festive dinner package four years ago.
Turkey prices and demand have fallen over the past two years
The American Farm Bureau Federation put the price of the classic dinner at $55.18 for a group of 10 people this year, based on wholesale prices rather than retail packages. This equates to approximately $5.52 per person. Although this price is down 5% on last year, it remains approximately 13% higher than it was in 2019.
While turkey consumption on this day remains staggering — between 46 and 47 million birds in a single day — turkey prices have risen so sharply over recent years that many consumers have stopped buying it, and producers are now doing everything they can to win them back. Even price reductions are failing to move the needle: turkey prices fell 6% in 2024 for the second consecutive year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In total, around 46 million turkeys are consumed across the country on the day, and annual per capita consumption is expected to reach approximately 6.3 kg, down from 13.9 kg in 2023, according to the US Department of Agriculture. By comparison, each American in 2024 consumed 54 kg of chicken, 104 kg of red meat, 23 kg of pork and 27 kg of beef through to November.
Further reading:
-. Poultry farming in the USA