Shopping for Thanksgiving is underway at the Evansville North First Avenue Ruler Foods grocery store.
One shopper is ringing up cans of store brand cranberry sauce, prompted by the self checkout machine.
According to the American Farm Bureau, the turkey, the stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and twelve other Thanksgiving items to make a complete meal cost almost the same as they did last year.
“So I think the takeaway message is that consumers ought not to experience the sticker shock that they might have seen a couple of years ago,” said Indiana Farm Bureau Economist Todd Davis. “That the food price inflation has moderated; we seem to come to some sort of stable level.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the ‘food at home price’ increase is 2.7-percent over last year.
The largest jump in prices was between December 2021 to December 2022, when the Food at Home price increased by 11.8 percent. Poultry, eggs and other meats rose 12.5 percent that year.
Grocer’s are advertising what their meal should cost this year. This is the lowest possible price should a consumer go to their store and built these specific items for their guests.
Ruler Foods is advertising a 10-person meal for about $4 per person — one helping each.
Amy McCormick, communications manager with Ruler foods, said aside from sticking to store brands, there are other ways to save money shopping.
“I always tell people, you know, look at the ads, look at apps,” she said. “There's always additional discounts that if you engage digitally with retailers, some coupons that you could take advantage of.”
Their assembled basket is at $4 per person mainly due to the 49-cent per pound frozen turkey — whereas the national brand is $2.49 per pound.
Midwesterners may also have an advantage when buying their turkey. The second-lowest poultry prices exist in the Midwest, the lowest are in the south, said Davis.
He added that the survey wasn't "scientific" and and a snapshot point in time, anecdotal resource.
More details on the American Farm Bureau survey
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