That’s according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has been tracking the cost of Thanksgiving classics for the last 39 years. This year, a meal for 10 will cost about $58.08, the survey found, down about 5% from 2023. However, that’s still 19% higher than pre-pandemic prices.
But Western states will have a bill 14% more expensive than the rest of the country, the federation wrote. Out West, a classic dinner for 10 people will be around $67.05 this Thanksgiving. The holiday meal is expected to be the cheapest in the South at about $56.81, followed by the Northeast at $57.36 and the Midwest at $58.90.
In the country’s West, food prices in grocery and convenience stores are likely to increase about 2.5% this year compared to 2023 levels, according to Dave Davis, president and CEO of the Utah Food Industry. But, food inflation, not including restaurants, he said, is trending in a good direction.
“Because of the big inflation that we saw during the pandemic, and even as things were winding down with the pandemic, we’re not back to sort of pre-pandemic levels,” Davis said on Tuesday. “And quite frankly, inflation, as it tends to do, is always going up.”
Restaurants may see about a 4.7% increase by the end of the year. However, for grocery stores, the uptick is at a manageable level, he said.
“You want to see inflation being where wage growth is outpacing inflation by just a little bit,” Davis said.
What was measured
For one week, volunteer shoppers from all 50 states and Puerto Rico visited their local grocery store in person or virtually to collect the prices of turkey, cubed stuffing, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, frozen peas, fresh cranberries, celery, carrots, pumpkin pie mix and crusts, whipping cream and whole milk, the survey said. They looked for the best possible prices, but didn’t use any special promotional coupons or combined purchase deals.
They found that most of those items dropped in price. But, four of them — dinner rolls, fresh cranberries, whipping cream and cubed stuffing — were up.
Turkey, the centerpiece of the feast, which accounted for 44% of the price calculated by the shoppers this year, experienced a 6% cost decrease, compared to 2023. That’s an anomaly, the economists who wrote the study said, because avian influenza has caused a decline of available turkeys, but demand for them is also down, which lowers prices.
Anecdotally, Davis said he hasn’t heard members at the Utah Food Industry speaking about any significant increases to the cost of turkeys. Being most people’s main dish, Davis estimates Utah numbers are similar to those found in the study.
“Everyone has their own preferences about what Thanksgiving dinner is going to look like. I think that our turkey costs have been pretty good and pretty consistent with those numbers,” Davis said.
Read the full report and see the price breakdown at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
