Visit Our Sponsors |
The cost of a traditional Thanksgiving Day feast has risen 14% this year to an average $53.31 — or about $6 per person — according to a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The turkey’s price tag has jumped 24%, more than stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee and milk. Without the bird, the meal reveals a 6.6% price increase compared to last year, which tracks closely with the Consumer Price Index for food and general inflation across the economy.
Several factors have contributed to the increase, including “dramatic disruptions to the U.S. economy and supply chains over the last 20 months; inflationary pressure throughout the economy; difficulty in predicting demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and high global demand for food, particularly meat,” said AFBF senior economist Veronica Nigh in a statement.
Warnings of empty shelves suggest inflationary psychology is hardening, but it seems that fears of a turkey shortage have been overblown, the Guardian reported. Butterball, the North Carolina poultry giant that produces more than 1 billion pounds of turkey each year, said it began preparing for this Thanksgiving a year in advance.
To be safe, northeastern grocery chain Stop & Shop is also limiting sales to one per $25 spent to discourage turkey hoarding.
Lovers of canned cranberries may have to be more flexible and opt for fresh berries due to shortages of the cans used to transport the fruit, Bloomberg reported.
Ocean Spray, a cooperative of more than 700 farms, was forced to use different cans due to supply chain woes, potentially causing a dearth of cranberries in parts of the country ahead of the holiday.
That means that consumers who prefer “iconic cranberry jellied sauce in a can” may not get what they want, said Ocean Spray Chief Executive Officer Tom Hayes.
RELATED CONTENT
RELATED VIDEOS
Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.