The cost of your Thanksgiving dinner in 2024 will not be weighed down by pricey turkey.
Your Thanksgiving Turkey Will Be Cheaper This Year—Here’s Why
Published on Nov. 20, 2024
This year, Thanksgiving turkeys will cost less than in years past, according to the Farm Bureau. In the group’s annual report on the cost of Thanksgiving dinner, economists revealed that this year’s feast will cost 5% less than it did last year. (Your trip to the grocery store will still be 19% more expensive than it was in 2019, though.)
The Farm Bureau, a lobbying group that represents farmers and ranchers, reports that some individual items in the spread are more expensive than last year, namely dinner rolls, fresh cranberries, whipping cream and cubed stuffing. However, the price of sweet potatoes, frozen peas, celery, carrots, pumpkin pie mix, pie crusts, whole milk and turkey all dropped.
Turkey historically accounts for nearly half the cost of any Thanksgiving meal, so a cheaper turkey means a cheaper overall dinner.
How much is Thanksgiving dinner in 2024?
Accounting for all the mains and sides listed above, a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people in 2024 will cost an average of $58.08. The price of turkey is 6% lower than last year, a stat the Farm Bureau calls “a bit of an anomaly.”
This year, farmers raised an estimated 205 million turkeys. That’s actually a decrease from 2023, and the lowest number since 1985, due in part to the ongoing bird flu that has affected poultry flocks. The law of supply and demand might dictate that the price of the remaining turkeys would go up…except that, at the same time the number of turkeys fell, the level of demand for turkey fell, too. Prices have fallen to match that lower demand. (Dare we blame the proliferation of delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving mains?)
As The Hustle points out, there’s another factor affecting turkey prices right now. Before the holidays, major retailers treat whole turkeys as loss leaders, meaning they can artificially lower turkey prices and make less profit on them (or none at all). The goal is to lure customers in with the promise of good value and spur those shoppers to make other major purchases at the store.
If you host Thanksgiving and want to trim costs, skip the items that the Farm Bureau cites as having the steepest price increases. Processed products like premade rolls and cubed stuffing have spiked the most in price (8%), partly due to labor shortages, so homemade dinner rolls might be best!
