Dive Brief:
- Target and Walmart have reiterated their savings opportunities for consumers with holiday meal deal offerings lasting until Dec. 25 and Dec. 26, respectively, after a year of persistent inflation.
- For Walmart, offering discounts across various meal ingredients like bone-in ham, which it’s selling for $2.28 per pound, is a continuation of an “inflation-free” promotion it rolled out ahead of Thanksgiving; while Target has introduced an entirely new savings for its consumers, offering up a holiday dinner for $25 and sides for under $5.
- Both retail giants are trying to show they’re a good value to inflation-weary shoppers and also looking to boost store traffic during the critical holiday shopping period.
Dive Insight:
Both Walmart and Target have seen discretionary purchases sag amid ongoing high inflation, and meal deals could be a way to get people in their doors during these last few days before Christmas and the New Year.
The deep discounts also underscore the price sensitivity that many consumers are experiencing, and that promises to linger well into 2023.
Walmart’s reverting to 2021 prices on holiday meal essentials was initially announced in early November, and will run until the day after Christmas. Discounted items include whole turkeys for under $1 per pound as well as low prices on ham, potatoes, stuffing, ready-to-heat mac and cheese and freshly made pumpkin pie, the announcement noted.
Target’s new holiday dinner offering for four, announced Monday in an email, consists of a 6- to 10-pound ham as well as sides and dessert for $25. In addition, the retailer has a list of holiday sides available for under $5, including nine Good & Gather mac-and-cheese and potato dishes. Target’s deals started Sunday and will run through Dec. 25, according to the press release.
In the announcement, Target highlighted that it has an assortment of holiday meal grocery items for under $10 available online and in-store. Customers can place orders for the items on Dec. 24 and receive their order the same day via pickup, drive-up or Shipt delivery.
In June, Target’s CEO Brian Cornell cited inflation and “historic highs with inventory levels” as the reasons behind the retailer paring down inventory in hopes of absorbing the hit to its first-quarter profit margins. In addition to inventory adjustments, Target also made additional markdowns and removed excess inventory as well as canceled orders to rightsize its stock levels.
“We think there’s going to be persistent inflation with us for a while, in drug, grocery and consumables,” Walmart CEO Dough McMillon told CNBC earlier this month.
He continued: “We’re managing this item by item, category by category. … We have a plan and adjusted our inventory to be ready for this next year.”
The holiday meal deals from Target and Walmart follow a widespread effort across food retailers to make Thanksgiving more affordable this year, with Turkey Day deals coming from discounters, national supermarket chains and club stores.
Forty-five percent of surveyed shoppers are worried about rising prices for holiday meals and celebrations, according to a Food Industry Association report, which also noted that inflationary concerns have mostly replaced safety worries about COVID-19.
