Sam’s Club enters the Thanksgiving meal deal wars with a pre-cooked feast
By Ramishah Maruf, CNN
New York (CNN) — Sam’s Club has now entered the Thanksgiving meal deal wars.
Sam’s Club on Thursday announced a Member’s Mark Thanksgiving meal, which feeds up to 10 people for under $100, made up of the warehouse club’s private label products.
That follows Aldi, which released its lowest-priced Thanksgiving meal deal in five years, feeding 10 people for $47, or $4.70 per person. That is about $2 cheaper than a similar offer at Walmart, which owns Sam’s Club, which markets a meal to serve eight people for less than $7 per person.
The stiff competition between the low-priced brands illustrates how inflation-weary customers are moving away from brand names toward cheaper private labels, such as Costco’s Kirkland Signature.
Though the rate of food price inflation has moderated, grocery prices have skyrocketed over the past few years due to a combination of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, extreme weather, and food makers boosting profits.
A survey from turkey-producer Butterball found that Thanksgiving parties are expected to be the largest since the start of the pandemic in 2020, and 98% of consumers expect inflation to impact their holiday plans, up from the 79% in 2023.
Unlike Aldi and Walmart’s turkey dinner, Sam’s Club is also offering to deliver the meal fully pre-cooked, ready to be heated up and served in under two hours.
The deal features a whole hickory-smoked turkey, dinner rolls, a tray of macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, sweet potato mash, a cranberry crunch salad, and a pumpkin pie.
In a blog post, senior vice president of private brands at Sam’s Club Myron Frazier said the meal deal targets millennial and Gen Z shoppers, who make up more than 25% of the company’s membership.
These shoppers have a sharp eye for deals, he said.
Aldi’s meal, meanwhile, includes a similar basket of items with Butterball turkey, gravy, rolls, macaroni and cheese, stuffing plus ingredients to make cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, a sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie.
Walmart’s meal includes 29 items, though it’s not pre-cooked. The deal features items from a whole frozen turkey to Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. Customers can also gift that meal to loved ones through pick-up or delivery, the company said.
-CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this report.
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