Walmart’s Thanksgiving meal basket got a lot cheaper this year. The catch is that it also got a lot smaller.
As ABC News points out, this year’s bundle has 15 items compared with 21 last year, and a higher share of cheaper store-brand products. A YouTube investigation from In Plain Bite argues that the holiday turkey is not really a product at all. “It’s bait,” the host says.
The video sets up a test of 11 stores, including Walmart, Costco and Kroger, with the same three questions for each. What am I really paying for? Who really made it? What is the hook? Eight stores fail or get a warning, and three pass.
Why Stores Sell The Turkey Below Cost
Grocery chains do something with the turkey they would never do with milk or eggs. They sell the centerpiece of the meal for less than it costs them, a practice called a loss leader.
The timing makes it stranger. Last fall, wholesale turkey cost about 40% more than the year before, and America raised fewer turkeys than in any year since 1985. Yet one chain still put a frozen bird on sale for 39 cents a pound.
The hook can hide in the label. A bird sold as fresh can never be chilled below 26 degrees, and the fine print “contains up to 8% of a solution” means water or broth, salt and seasonings went in before it hit your cart. On a 14 lb bird, 8% is more than a pound.
Kroger Dangled A 59 Cent Turkey, Then 150 Sale Tags Rang Up Wrong
Last Thanksgiving, Kroger’s turkey hit about 59 cents a pound in some markets. It came with strings, a digital coupon in the app and a $25 additional purchase.
Consumer Reports then looked at what the app does. Kroger’s loyalty program collects data on what you buy, and that data feeds individualized discounts, so two shoppers at the same turkey bin can see two different deals.
Checking Kroger-owned stores, Consumer Reports found more than 150 items still wearing sale tags that had expired. At the register, those items rang up higher, with an average gap of $1.70, or 18.4% over the shelf price.
The host’s verdict: the bird was cheap, but the tag next to the gravy was a promise the register did not keep. The 59 cent bird itself was real, and clipping the coupon got you a strong deal.
Food Lion’s 39 Cent Bird Cost Card Holders $5.46 Less
Last November, Food Lion advertised frozen turkey at 39 cents a pound for MVP card holders who also spent $35. Without the card, the regular price was $2.79.
On a 14 lb bird, the host says, that is $5.46 for the card holder and $39.06 for the shopper standing next to her, a penalty of $33.60 for not signing up. Same freezer, same week.
The video also notes a 2019 USDA recall of about 78,164 lbs of raw ground turkey for possible salmonella. The packages carried the names Butterball, Kroger and Food Lion, with the same inspection code, P-7345, inside the mark. That recall covered ground turkey made in 2018, not this year’s birds, but it shows one plant behind three brands.
Aldi’s $40 Dinner For 10 Had No Turkey When A Reporter Went Shopping
Last year Aldi announced a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people for $40, with a 14 lb turkey and ingredients for nine sides. Business Insider reporter Terry Peters tried to buy it.
Her store had no turkey. She checked two more Aldi locations through delivery shoppers, and they were out too, so she bought a more expensive bird elsewhere.
The same year, bird flu forced the culling of roughly 3 million turkeys, and Cargill closed its turkey plant in Springdale, Arkansas. The host calls an advertised turkey you cannot buy “a picture of a deal.”
ShopRite’s Free Turkey Window Shrank By A Week
ShopRite’s sign is big and honest. Rack up $400 in qualifying purchases on one loyalty account and you earn a free participating turkey.
In 2024, shoppers had from October 20 to November 28, which is 40 days. In 2025 the window ran October 26 to November 27, or 33 days, for the same $400.
That works out to roughly $70 a week in 2024 and about $85 in 2025. The host’s advice is to add up last November’s receipts, and if your normal shopping clears the bar, collect the bird. If you would have to stretch, the free turkey costs you every better price you skip.
Walmart’s 25% Cheaper Thanksgiving Shrank To 6.5%
In October 2025, Walmart announced a Thanksgiving basket at about $40, roughly a quarter below the 2024 basket of about $55. The 2024 basket held 21 products in 29 items, and the 2025 basket held 15 products in 22 items.
Gone were the pecan pie, sweet potatoes, fresh onions and celery, corn muffin mix and mini marshmallows. The turkey went from a 10 to 16 lb bird to a Butterball of 11 to 13.5 lbs.
FactCheck.org priced the 2024 basket again at 2025 prices and found the real drop was about 6.5%, not 25%. One economist put it bluntly, saying a typical family’s Thanksgiving does not cost 25% less unless 25% fewer people show up.
The 25% figure traveled all the way to the White House. The host gives Walmart credit for a real, useful $40 meal, but says a smaller dinner is not a cheaper Thanksgiving. Walmart’s frozen Butterball sold for 97 cents a pound.
The Hidden Room Behind The Wholesale Price
The video also looks at the turkey processors behind the store labels. A federal judge described the defendants in a turkey price case as the nation’s largest processors, collectively controlling over 80% of the market.
The plaintiffs allege that from 2010 through 2016 the processors used a subscription data service to cut supply and raise prices, and the companies deny it. On August 26, a judge gave preliminary approval to $34 million from Butterball and $37.5 million from Hormel and Jennie-O, which is $71.5 million in new settlements. With earlier deals, recovery for direct buyers reached about $130.7 million. Settlements are not findings of guilt.
Target’s Good and Gather turkey, at 79 cents a pound, is made by Hormel, the host says, citing the company’s own label database. In 2018, Jennie-O recalled 164,210 lbs of raw ground turkey during a salmonella outbreak that sickened 358 people in 42 states, though no one has linked Good and Gather to it.
Who Passed, Costco At 99 Cents And Trader Joe’s Half Turkey
The three passes were Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Costco. Costco’s fresh whole turkey, almost always a Butterball, has been 99 cents a pound since 2014 according to a price tracker, with no coupon, app or spending target. The $65 membership is its one hook.
Whole Foods won a Consumer Reports blind taste test with its 365 organic young turkey at about $3.99 a pound, roughly $55.86 for 14 lb, against $13.58 for Walmart’s 97 cent bird. Trader Joe’s sells an herb-seasoned brined bone-in half turkey at around $4.99 a pound, a good fit for small tables.
Three Questions To Ask In The Aisle
- What am I paying for? Check near the weight for “up to 8% of a solution,” basted or enhanced.
- Who made it? Find the round USDA mark with a P and a number.
- What is the hook? Count the cards, coupons and spending targets.
In the kitchen, check the thickest part of the breast, the thigh and the wing for 165 degrees, thaw in the fridge a day for every 4 to 5 lb, and never brine a pre-brined bird.
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