How Consumers Shop for Thanksgiving Dinner

What we're seeing

Thanksgiving is one week away so Alkami Research examined how consumers shop for holiday dinner. This week's chart shows the number of grocery store transactions by day in November of 2023. Thanksgiving Day - which fell on November 23 last year - had the fewest grocery transactions of the entire month.

Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving are the big shopping days. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving saw 62% more transactions than the average Tuesday the rest of the month and Wednesday before Thanksgiving had 50% more transactions than the average Wednesday in November.

Interestingly, consumer behavior on the weekend before and after Thanksgiving shifted. Consumers had 30% fewer transactions on the Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving, as compared to a typical Saturday or Sunday during the month. Consumers made 17.5% fewer grocery transactions after Thanksgiving on the Saturday and Sunday combined than on the typical Saturday and Sunday during the month.

Takeaway and Call to Action

Alkami Research has three fun key takeaways this week!

1. Avoid the crowds and do your shopping on Monday!
2. Remind your account holders to put their turkey day spend on your financial institution's debit or credit card.
3. Third, and most important, have a Happy Thanksgiving!