Who’s Winning on Thanksgiving Dinner Meals (and Can These Deals Build Loyalty)?

With this year’s Thanksgiving slated for Nov. 26, households across the U.S. are getting ready to give thanks with a complete spread – and retailers and grocers are competing for spend.

Up first is Walmart, with an Oct. 28 press release advertising a meal for 10 individuals priced at $35. A Butterball turkey priced at 97 cents per pound (apparently immune to inflation, as it was the same price last year) is the centerpiece, with Stove Top stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and warm dinner rolls also sharing the stage. On the side is a sweet potato casserole and a pumpkin pie with whipped topping. Free express shipping is included.

Other grocery competitors looking to win hearts, minds, and stomachs this Thanksgiving:

• Amazon: Amazon’s offering a $25 Thanksgiving dinner, also featuring a Butterball turkey (this time at 79 cents per pound) and accompaniments to feed eight hungry guests at the table. Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, McCormick gravy mixes, Stove Top stuffing, and Amazon Grocery’s private label potatoes, corn, carrots, green beans, crescent rolls, pie crusts, and pumpkin pie puree are also offered, among other items. Shipping is also included.

• Costco: Aiming for the other end of the market is Costco, pricing its dinner for eight at $199.99. There’s a whopping 30 pounds of food included, though, including free-range turkey breast, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, cornbread stuffing, sweet corn, candied yams, gravy, relish, pumpkin pie, and dinner rolls.

• Aldi: Coming in at “under $39,” or less than $4 per person, Aldi’s Thanksgiving meal deal includes a 16-lb. turkey, a package of Hawaiian sweet rolls, three boxes of stuffing mix, baby carrots, celery, cranberries, sweet potatoes, frozen peas, pumpkin pie mix and pie crusts, whole milk and whipping cream.

Other grocers pitching in with their own Thanksgiving meal deals are Lidl (at a somewhat bizarre $35.86 price point for 10 people); Target ($30 to feed six); Wegmans ($40 to serve eight guests, the same price as last year); and Sam’s Club ($160 to feed 16 diners).

Last Year's Thanksgiving Meal Deal 'Price War' Appears to Continue, But Provides Opportunity for Grocers

And while a 2025 Axios report from Kelly Tyko cast the situation at the time as a “price war” to impress cash-strapped American consumers, little has changed in the interim. Turkeys remain a loss leader for many grocers involved in selling these promotional meal bundles – “many retailers are selling turkeys at or below cost to draw shoppers in for higher-margin items like wine, desserts and décor – a classic loss-leader strategy that works for big chains such as Walmart, Aldi and Kroger but squeezes smaller grocers,” as Tyko wrote at the time.

“Everyone's discounting turkeys – but someone's footing the bill. Retailers are absorbing the pain to show shoppers they still have their backs,” Tyko added, also citing analyst Bruce Winder on the same subject.

“Grocers can't afford to keep losing money on food forever," he stated of last year’s Thanksgiving, opening up the question for today’s readers as to whether things have changed substantially in the intervening year. "But in a market where loyalty is everything, they see it as the cost of staying relevant."

Questions for further discussion:

• How likely is it that deeply discounted Thanksgiving meal bundles can generate lasting grocery loyalty? If so, what differentiators beyond pricing must be in play and evident?

• How much opportunity is there for grocers to use aggressively priced seasonal meal deals to introduce shoppers to own brand or private label products?

• Which grocery players do you believe are doing the best job of not only attracting Thanksgiving spend, but also capitalizing on the opportunity in the longer term?