Looking for the best price on Thanksgiving Dinner this year?
Grocery store owners and operators say ‘now’ is the time to start stocking up ahead of the big day. Last month it was reported that Thanksgiving dinner would be the most expensive in recent memory.
Now, thanks in part to supply chain issues being felt across the U.S. that has come to pass.
What are shoppers saying about increased cost and supply chain issues?
Shoppers are frustrated. “These aren’t just holiday items,” Brenda Moon told FingerLakes1.com. “These are everyday items that are either harder to come by or find- or have gotten much more expensive.” Moon has five children. Typically they do a large Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.
“During a normal year we rotate who does the cooking. This year we’re having everyone bring a dish to pass because everyone is coming from different places and it will allow us to have everything,” she explained. “It’s like, ‘I can’t find cranberry sauce at my grocery store, but my sister-in-law can, so she’ll bring that’, or one of us saying ‘Hey, I found a better price on a turkey here- I’ll pick one up’.”
Of course, some families won’t be able to weather the cost at all- and will likely go without in certain areas as prices inflate higher-and-higher.
The best advice for getting ahead of Thanksgiving? Do your shopping now.
What are grocery stores saying about cost and supply issues?
“This is probably going to be a first for us because no holiday we’ve had to really endure a full year of the pandemic,” Mark Spera Junior told CNYCentral. He owns Spera’s in Cicero and Manlius. “A couple of these key things that you really want to have on your dinner table, you almost have to go on a mission to get it.”
He says prices are on the way up because of limited supply on certain things.
“You’re seeing inflated costs all across-the-board not just produce but something that even you would think is local and that wouldn’t change, the markets completely different than it was even a year ago,” he said.
Will it get better? Probably not in the short-term.
How much more is Thanksgiving dinner going to cost?
When people think about Thanksgiving – the first item that comes to mind is turkey. The cost of smaller bird – one that is between 8- and 16-lbs has risen by 22%. In 2018 it was just $0.84 per pound. Now, that cost is around $1.41 per pound.
But that’s not all: Potatoes are 13% more expensive. Baby carrots are 19% more expensive. Pumpkins are 20% more expensive. And apples are 22% pricier.
Canned cranberries? Those are just hard to find.
“What it’s felt like is basically a gamble. Every time you open the back of the truck how much of, what percent of your order is going to come in,” Spera said. At the moment, he has just one can of cranberry sauce left on the shelf.
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