Thanksgiving Shopping: A Store Brand Meal Is Nearly $20 Less Than Name Brand, Report Says

Topline

While food inflation has largely slowed, some items integral to a Thanksgiving meal have seen slight increases, and some name brand options are actually less expensive than store brand options this year—though it is still overall less expensive to purchase store brand fixings, according to a new report by the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute.

Key Facts

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Surprising Fact

Cranberries, another Thanksgiving classic, are one of the items where a name brand purchase is less expensive than store brand. A 12 ounce name brand bag of cranberries is down 3% from this time last year, while a store brand bag of the same size is up 6%—making the name brand product the easy option for most consumers.

Tangent

The annual Wells Fargo report also looked at the cost of drinks, though they weren’t included in the overall cost estimate of a meal for 10. Beverage prices this year are “all over the place,” with beer and wine seeing price increases of 3.3% and 2.4%, respectively, but two-liter soft drink bottles seeing a 10.8% decrease. Twelve-ounce soda cans saw a 1.7% increase, though, so the experts recommend opting for the two-liter bottles to “help balance the budget” and account for the alcohol increases.

Key Background

The deceleration of food prices that’s been seen throughout the year is expected to continue through the end of 2024, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data. From August to September—the last available data—food saw a 0.4% increase. In 2024, prices for all food are expected to increase a total of 2.3%, with food-at-home prices increasing 1.2% and food-away-from-home prices increasing 4.1%. The 2024 increases are down significantly from what was seen in 2020 when food-at-home-prices increased 3.5%, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture said was “largely driven by a rapid increase in food-at-home prices following the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic.” Food price increases continued through 2022, which saw a 9.9% increase, and began to steady in 2023, which saw food prices increase 5.8% but slow generally as “economy-wide inflationary pressures, supply chain issues, and wholesale food prices eased.”

What To Watch For

What happens to food prices after the election. Former president—and now president-elect—Donald Trump has promised to lower grocery prices. He hasn’t provided much detail on how he intends to do that—and at least one expert has cautioned presidents don’t really have that much impact on food prices in the short term—but said at one town hall he would treat farmers better in an effort to lower prices, and suggested he would limit food imports to lower prices.

Further Reading

AxiosWhy Trump’s vow to lower grocery costs will backfire, economists warnAP NewsTrump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say