Dive Brief:
- Walmart plans to offer the components of a traditional Thanksgiving meal at a sharp discount starting on Oct. 14 — more than two weeks earlier in the year than it began offering a similar holiday promotion in 2023 — the retailer announced Thursday.
- The deal, which will run through Dec. 25, will be less expensive than the Thanksgiving food bundle Walmart offered last year, the company said.
- Walmart is drawing attention to its ability to offer low-priced groceries even as grocery inflation is hovering at its slowest pace in more than three years.
Dive Insight:
Walmart said its “inflation free” Thanksgiving meal package is intended to serve as many as 10 people and will include 28 “customer favorites,” including turkey for less than $1 per pound. The retailer did not provide details about the other items beyond saying they include trimmings and dessert.
The retailer will make the entire offering available online and in stores and cost less than $7 per person, Walmart said, reflecting an effort by the company “to help customers set their holiday table without compromise.”
Walmart’s announcement puts it ahead of other retailers that have made a point of offering holiday meal items at a sharp discount, including Target, Aldi and Lidl.
Walmart has progressively stepped up its annual holiday meal promotion since 2022, when it announced that it would offer the ingredients for a Thanksgiving feast at the same price as it charged during the prior year even as grocery inflation was close to multi-decade highs. The company announced that promotion on Nov. 3, 2022 — much later in the season than it is rolling out this year’s promotion.
As it is doing this year, Walmart said in 2023 that its Thanksgiving meal deal would cost less than it did the prior year. Grocery inflation came in at an annual rate of 0.9% in August, down from the 3% rate during the same month in 2023.
Walmart’s accelerated Thanksgiving meal discount program coincides with a broader effort by the retailer to burnish its credentials as a discounter and give shoppers more time to save money during the holidays. The company said Thursday that it will run its first “Holiday Deals” sale, which will include items like electronics, toys and home goods, from Oct. 8-13.
Walmart added that it is tapping artificial intelligence technology to expand its delivery reach to 12 million additional households.
