SEATTLE — Cheap turkey is a blessing that grocery stores bestow on shoppers every November, but this year the bargains are especially meaningful.
Stores are paying 33 percent more for turkeys because of high feed prices and low inventory, according to The Food Institute, a trade association in New Jersey.
In the first eight months of this year, the U.S. slaughtered 157 million turkeys, down 3.4 percent from the same period in 2009. Stocks of cold-stored birds are down 24 percent. And prices for wheat and other feed are high following a disastrous drought in Russia.
That means stores are paying more — an average of $1.05 a pound more — for turkeys this season, but many will sell them far below their cost.
Turkeys are traditionally loss leaders at Thanksgiving, as soft drinks are in the summer. Because Thanksgiving is such a narrow window, turkey pricing remains highly secretive and is not discussed publicly until the birds arrive in stores and sale prices appear in advertisements.
For example, Haggen, a Pacific Northwest supermarket chain, will not discuss how much it plans to charge for fresh turkeys this year, which are scheduled to arrive in stores this week.
“There’s going to be a sale, but no one shows their hand until the ad,” said Becky Skaggs, a Haggen spokeswoman.
Haggen offers frozen turkeys for 27 cents a pound with a $25 purchase, although its turkey costs are up 10 percent to 15 percent from last year.
It sells three times as many turkeys during the two weeks before Thanksgiving as the whole rest of the year, Skaggs said.
Costco Wholesale escaped the run-up in turkey prices this year by booking early. It contracted with vendors in February and March to ensure that, come November, it would have the turkeys it needs. How many turkeys? “Well over a million,” said Jeff Lyons, Costco’s senior vice president of fresh foods.
The warehouse club locked in prices before they spiked. “We’re in a very good position, and I want to be humble about it, because we’re lucky,” he said.
