Garner, North Carolina, USA-based Butterball, which has offered advice to home meal preparers through its Butterball Turkey Talk-Line for more than 40 years, on August 30 released data from its 2022 Thanksgiving Outlook Report. According to the findings, nearly 90% of Americans planning to celebrate the November 24 holiday this year as concerns around coronavirus and Covid-19 have lessened. However, concerns about price inflation –particularly at the grocery store – are driving the need to get creative with cutting costs without sacrificing holiday celebrations.
When compared to respondent recollection of 2021, the report reveals a 4% increase in those hosting guests for the first time and a 4% decrease in those not planning to celebrate; the size of gatherings will remain the same as last year. While hosts are planning to manage cost savings on side dishes and desserts, turkey will still be at the center of their table and guest lists won’t be scaled back.
While hosts may not be willing to compromise their gathering size or turkey, they do have concerns about inflation. Notably, 44% of Thanksgiving hosts are concerned about rising prices, specifically at the grocery store (87%) and gas pump (75%). The findings reveal multiple ways hosts may mitigate the costs of this year’s Thanksgiving meal:
• 55% of hosts concerned about inflation said they would shop for deals for parts of the entire meal. This marks a departure from early in the pandemic when hosts were concerned about minimizing the time in store and number of stores shopped.
• To manage costs, hosts might economize with the side dishes they prepare (32%), cook more from scratch (24%), look for ways to make the meal less formal (20%) or ask guests to bring a side (15%).
“While people are eager to gather with friends and loved ones this Thanksgiving, we are seeing external factors like inflation that will influence the way people celebrate,” said Rebecca Welch, director of retail brand marketing at Butterball. “But we also see celebrators planning to get creative with ways to cut costs that won’t compromise a memorable Thanksgiving. We know people want to celebrate with a turkey at the center of the table, and as always, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is here to share its 41 years of Thanksgiving expertise.”
The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line officially opens for the season Tuesday, November 1, and experts can be reached a variety of ways including phone, text, online chat or Alexa, and will be ready to support consumers through all their
About the Study Butterball commissioned an omnibus online survey among a nationally representative sample of 1,005 adults living in the United States. It was fielded by Ipsos between July 6-7, 2022.
For more than 60 years, the company has provided frozen, chilled and fresh turkey foodservice and retail products to customers and consumers around the world. With distribution throughout the United States and more than 45 other countries, Butterball sold more than one million pounds of turkey products last year. It operates six processing plants located in North Carolina, Arkansas and Missouri.
