Frozen turkeys are currently $.59/lb currently at the supermarket.

if there's any left maybe

>>8281517

This is a very interesting topic.

I find that the best deals on turkeys are often just before thanksgiving.

The price of a bird a couple weeks back was probably close to 2 or 3 bucks a pound. But right around thanksgiving, when demand is highest and you would think price would go up - price drops like a rock.

The other times of the year when no one eats turkey and there is no demand price increases.

This is one of the weirdest bipolar displays in capitalism as far as i can tell.

I think it has to do with turkey farmers flooding the market with product at this time of year and really drying up the market the other 11 months of the year.. but it doesn't seem to make sense to me since a frozen turkey is probably good for several months. you would think that prices would be more of a continuum and would be less elastic. it's not as if thanksgiving is some big surprise to the market. everyone knows it is coming and going.

>>8281517
Buy like 2 turkeys and chop em up to use later. Use turkeys are great all throughout the year

>>8281563
People who only eat turkey for Thanksgiving/Christmas are missing out

>>8281542
Like sweet potatos. Local stores will sell them at around .88 cents per pound all year long, but the local Walmart will drop the price to less than .30 cents per pound for a couple of days only around Thanksgiving, and most people I know and see don't buy them fresh they buy canned, so the price drop is of no value to most people.

>>8281561
Can that truly explain it though? It seems like you're simply spreading your profit over a larger volume, making more money overall and charging a lesser price per pound. Seems like volume drives down prices, the more a product moves the cheaper it becomes even, it isn't about the unitary price per item, it's about telling people to buy 5 for $5 instead of 1 for $1.80, which is what convenience stores do with soft drinks, buy a coke for $1.68 or 3 for $3

>>8282379
It's both a loss leader and the fact that stores everywhere are undercutting each other. If they went to opposite way then tons of people would switch to chicken or ham and tradition be damned. This way they stay competitive and still manage to being people into the store.

>>8282399
I don't dissagree with you, I think we are talking about different margins of loss though. What do you think is the loss on the turkeys let's say. Are they giving up the entirety of profit? Are they making 50% less?

In my opinion, they are simply spreading the profit over the wider demand, as in the rest of the year the turkey stocked probably will not move and that $1 a pound through the rest of the year pays for the item to simply sit on the shelf because it will eventually be thrown away same way produce is sold in grocery stores. My opinion is that there is no loss, and they are actually making a bigger profit by having a larger volume because they know for a fact that they will sell out of turkeys. Keeping a lower price per pound and increasing the volume means they make money.

>>8282379

>Sweet potatoes drop in price around thanksgiving

Good to know. I've only been shopping for myself for a few months so learning about ways to save money is great.

>>8282424
You're probably right. It's not much of a loss at all. They probably buy it for pennies. I'm not sure what you'd call a loss leader that doesn't actually lose money, but that's what it is. I know that whenever I'm done holiday shopping, even though it's only for two people I'm out at least $100. They make it up elsewhere.

>>8282461
>I generally buy 30lbs of sweet potatoes this time of year because properly stored, they keep a long time.

How the hell do you keep them? I eat them all year around, and I can't seem to keep them longer than a couple of weeks.

I don't believe in the loss leader theory much, the only products that one could call loss leaders would be the entirety of groceries that are not brought in by a vendor, in other words, unless its soft drinks, potato chips, packaged bread and baked goods, some cereals, most cookies and crackers, they are simply not making money on them, as far as I am concerned being around grocers and having dealt with grocery stores as a supplier, the only profits to be made come from products that pay to be on the shelf that is your bread aisle, your pop and chip aisle and your deli, and if the store sells it, alcohol. Everything else is a loss leader and at the top of the list of loss leaders is produce.

The day after Thanksgiving 8 years ago when I was a poor college student, the chain supermarket had frozen turkeys for $0.19/lb. Had an entire bin of frozen turkeys of all different brands. I grabbed two and ate like a king for two weeks. If I had a chest freezer of something probably would have grabbed 10. Was something like $3.50 per turkey.

>>8282474

>everything that is actually food is a loss leaders

So I can thank poor people/obese murrifats for subsidizing my grocery shopping? Sounds pretty good to me.

>>8282510
Well... not really, because these products would actually be cheaper, if people bought them at higher volumes.

>>8281517
nuclear waste maybe? military rations unfrozen after 10 years? you're risking your life eating that

File: Wegmans_-_Robyn_Lee_flickr[1].jpg (274KB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

274KB, 1024x768px

I work at Wegman's and we're selling frozen turkeys for about 39 - 48 cents per pound depending on where you are, yes we are losing about 9 - 12 dollars per turkey sale.

Reasons why we do it anyways:

1. Competition, puts those other stores in their place
2. We make a lot of the money back off ingredient/side dish sales (stuffing, sauces, etc).

It's still a loss all things considered but it makes good business sense overall. As far as whether or not the sale gets better after thanksgiving, no, not at all. Sales for most places (not just talking about wegmans) end just before thanksgiving and the surplus goes back into a freezer and stays there till next year since frozen turkeys last for ages, so get your turkey(s) now.

Personally I get sick and tired of Turkey about halfway through Thanksgiving dinner, so I dunno if I'd recommend buying more than one.