INDIANAPOLIS — It’s eight days until Thanksgiving and everybody is trying to buy that Turkey Day meal now.
It looks like it might be more expensive to cook for your family this year, so we checked out a few of the big grocery stores around town to see what it could cost to get your holiday meal ready.
Our adventure began at Kroger where we looked for at least four of the Thanksgiving Day staples: turkey, cranberries, stuffing and pie or mashed potatoes.
Here’s what we found. Turkey will cost 99 cents per pound, but if you spend $25, then the turkey is 49 cents per pound. Cranberries cost $1.49, while stuffing is two for $4 and pie costs $4.99.
It all adds up to about $25 with a 15-pound turkey.
At Meijer, turkey will cost 33 cents per pound, cranberries $1.69, stuffing $1.99 each and pie $4.99. So, you’re looking at about $16 for the entire meal.
And at Aldi in Speedway, we found turkey will cost 87 cents per pound, cranberries are 89 cents, stuffing is 89 cents each and pie costs $5.89. That all adds up to about $23 for the meal with a 16-pound turkey.
Overall, you can expect a turkey to cost about 40 cents more per pound, according to experts at Purdue University. In general, all food will cost about 9-10% more now compared to before the pandemic.
Most grocery stores are not necessarily rationing supplies, but Meijer said it only allows one turkey per customer.
Why is this happening?
Consumer demand for everything is up right now because of a vibrant economy and inflation. There is also a strong demand for U.S. agriculture exports, and labor costs more for supply chain and meat-packing businesses.
