Maritimers expected to catch a break this Thanksgiving with grocery costs

A collection of turkeys at Rinzler’s Market in Moncton is pictured. (Source: Alana Pickrell/CTV News Atlantic)

Farm-fresh turkeys hit the shelves at Rinzler’s Market in Moncton for the first time Wednesday and customers were quick to ensure the birds were on their main course for Thanksgiving.

“We’re heading home to Dartmouth today after being at the cottage this summer and it works out well. We come up and visit some family, get our turkey and go home,” said Peter Wickwire, who has been buying his turkey at Rinzler’s for years now.

According to Turkey Farmers of Canada, supply is up and prices are down heading into Thanksgiving this year.

“Generally, the average retail turkey prices year-to-date are similar or lower compared to 2022 and 2023.Prices vary by retailer, but for Atlantic Canada, we are seeing turkeys as low as $1.67 per pound,” said corporate communications manager Maegan MacKimmie. “We anticipate that the supply of turkeys will be ample for Thanksgiving this year. Stocks of frozen whole turkeys across Canada on Sept. 1, 2024, were up from both 2022 and 2023, indicating a strong supply for Thanksgiving.”

Dalhousie University Agri-food Analytics Lab senior director Sylvain Charlebois says overall turkey prices are “aggressive” across Canada heading into the holiday weekend, which will give shoppers a small break when it comes to their feast.

“We actually calculated how much you should be spending. The bare minimum you have to spend for turkey dinner this year is $32.40 in the Atlantic,” he said. “But that’s really the minimum if you go out and buy the best deal possible for each item.”

He says local produce like carrots are also cheaper this year compared to imported products, which wasn’t the case last year. Many stores even have deals on the fixings like potatoes, canned gravy and boxed stuffing.

“At Giant Tiger you can get a can of sauce, of turkey gravy, for $0.88. That’s cheap. There’s actually some retailers that actually are selling stove-top stuffing below a dollar. We didn’t see that last year,” he said. “Retailers are actually using these products as a hook to get you into the store so you can buy those products and buy other things that are a higher margin, that’s loss leading.”

At Rinzler’s the farm-fresh turkeys are only expected to last for a few days.

“(The price is) excellent this year actually, it’s lower than last year, so we’re happy about that,” said Annemieke Vink.

Jason Rinzler, market manager at the store, says if customers buy their turkey while there are still some available, Rinzler’s will store it in their cooler until closer to the weekend.

“We like to keep the price at a low margin on our end. It’s a nice draw. We have those customers every year that are looking at, you know, swear by the farm fresh turkey, they don’t want anything else, so it’s always to bring customers into the stores is the big thing for sure,” he said.

While turkey seems to steal the show for Thanksgiving, it’s not the only option Maritimers are buying.

“About two or three times a year ,I buy a ham. We have about 30 people coming so that makes it about $3.25 a piece. I grow my potatoes, carrots and so on,” said Jan Albert Cormier.

Charlebois says in order to find the best deals and save the most money, Maritimers will have to shop around, but overall, shoppers should see a bit of relief and have one more thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend.