ANKARA: The prices that supermarkets pay for turkeys are about 15 percent to 20 percent higher than they were a year ago, the stores still are offering deep discounts on the frozen birds as a way to get consumers into their stores for the rest of their holiday meal shopping.
Wegmans, for instance, this week started selling its Round Hill frozen turkeys for 48 cents a pound – the same price as last year – for consumers who have a Shoppers Club card and spend at least $25, said Jo Natale, a spokeswoman for the Rochester-based chain.
Tops hasn’t started its sale yet, but it also plans to offer Tops-label frozen turkeys a the same 48 cents per pound that it charged last year, beginning on Sunday with a $25 additional purchase.
While the sale price will be the same, Tops’ cost on those frozen turkeys will be “only a few pennies higher” per pound than last year because it locked up its supply of turkeys months ago, before the outbreak of bird flu hit, said Frank Curci, the chain’s chairman and chief executive officer. “There’s not much of a difference at all.”
That’s good news for local shoppers, because nearly 8 million turkeys were destroyed this year to prevent the spread of bird flu, driving down supplies and pushing up wholesale prices in the process.
Because supermarket chains sell tens of thousands of frozen turkeys in a short period leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, they have to start planning far in advance to make sure they have enough birds in their freezers for the mid-November shopping rush. That means that preparations for this year’s Thanksgiving began not long after last year’s feast ended, Natale said.
That ended up being good for consumers, because most big chains locked up their supplies just as the bird flu outbreak was hitting.
