HOUSTON – Get ready for crowds at the grocery store as everyone checks off their shopping list for the big Thanksgiving Day feast.
Stores are already marking down the main attraction—turkey—to get customers through the door. However, the advertisements for the Thanksgiving deals can be hard to decipher, so consumer expert Amy Davis broke it all down.
At Randalls, customers who spend $100 on groceries can add a Honeysuckle ham or Safeway Farms frozen turkey eight to 24 lbs. for free. For $50, the same turkey costs 59 cents a pound, for a total of $55.90.
At HEB, customers can get a free 12-lb. frozen Riverside turkey with the purchase of an HEB spiral-sliced ham that's at least 4 ½ lbs. But after stopping at two stores, the lowest-priced ham Local 2 found was 9 lbs. for $31.58.
At Fiesta, customers can nab 10-16-lb. frozen Jennie-O turkeys for $0.35 per pound when they spend $25. For a 10-lb. bird, that's $3.50, or about $28.50 to get the deal.
Kroger offers a 10-lb. bird for 59 cents per pound to shoppers who make at least a $20 purchase. That costs a total of just $4.40, for a total of $24.40.
Every store is selling turkeys at a loss. An HEB representative says stores are paying an average of $1.18 per pound for turkeys this year.