Maritimers expected to catch a break this Thanksgiving with grocery costs
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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Feds move to end port strikes, order binding arbitration
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon says he is intervening to end the work stoppages at ports in both British Columbia and Montreal.
Canada Post workers issue 72-hour strike notice
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has given a 72-hour strike notice to Canada Post.
'He begged me': Brampton, Ont. woman loses more than $200K to romance scam
A Brampton woman says she is devastated after she lost more than $200,000 — her life's savings — to a romance scam.
Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35. Police say he was upset about his divorce
A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday.
Federal judge blocks Louisiana law that requires classrooms to display Ten Commandments
A new Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 was temporarily blocked Tuesday by a federal judge who said the law is 'unconstitutional on its face.'
Ottawa high school principal apologizes for song played during Remembrance Day assembly
The principal of an Ottawa high school is apologizing to students, parents and guardians after an Arabic-language song was played during the school's Remembrance Day service.
Judge extends the time to indict the driver accused of killing Johnny Gaudreau and his brother
The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, as they were cycling on a rural New Jersey road briefly appeared in court Tuesday, where the judge extended the window for prosecutors to seek an indictment.
Church of England head Justin Welby resigns over handling of sex abuse scandal
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.
Earth's biggest polluters aren't sending leaders to UN climate talks in a year of weather extremes
World leaders are converging Tuesday at the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan although the big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent, unlike past climate talks which had the star power of a soccer World Cup.