Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 20, 1940.
Turkey Dinner To Cost About Same As In 1939
BY UNITED PRESS
John Q. Public, the average American citizen who is the head of a family of four, will pay about $4.32 for his Thanksgiving dinner if he lives in one of the 32 states where the holiday will be celebrated tomorrow, a United Press survey showed.
The average price for the meal in 1939 was $4.46.
As in 1939, there are again two schools of thought on the celebration of the annual feast day. Governors of 16 states clung to the traditional last Thursday of the month, the others abided by the proclamation of President Roosevelt which for the second successive year moved the holiday up one week.
If Mr. Public lives in one of the states where tomorrow will be Thanksgiving, he can travel next week to Maine, New Hampshire Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, North Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, Nevada or Idaho and have another feast. Those are the states which retained the traditional date. Kentucky will celebrate both days.
The average market basket which Mrs. John Q. Public carried after she had gone shopping for the family’s dinner contained an eight-pound turkey costing $2.26; one bunch of celery worth nine cents; a large jar of olives which cost 30 cents; four pounds of sweet potatoes, 18 cents; one-fourth peck white potatoes, eight cents; one pound of mince meat for a pie, 21 cents; four pounds of squash, 14 cents; two pounds of cranberry for sauce, 58 cents; two pounds of pumpkin for another pie, 22 cents and five pounds of apples for stuffing and baking, 27 cents.
Turkey prices generally were lower this year despite heavy losses in flocks during the severe cold weather recently. At New York, where the traditional bird cost 37 to 39 cents last year, the price was down to 29 to 31 cents per pound in 1940. In San Francisco the prices were 16 to 27 cents this year compared with 27 to 31 in 1939. But in Minneapolis, Minn., where turkey farmers suffered some of the most extensive losses, the price was up three cents per pound over the 1939 price of 30 cents.
At Omaha, Neb., provisioners reported the price of an average turkey was 28¼ cents compared with an average of 30 cents last year, all other staples for the meal were at approximately the same levels as last year except cranberries which were ip one to five cents depending upon the proximity to markets and pumpkin which was down slightly in most localities, seldom more than one cent.
The survey determined the cost of the meal only on the basis of the ordinary menu composed of the foods contained in the basket Mrs. Public brought home from the market. The “fixin’s” which may be added to this basic meal would increase the cost in proportion to the amounts considered necessary to make the meal complete.
However, some provisioners recommended that six cents be added to the total cost of even the basic mealーthe average price of a box of bicarbonate of soda.
