Concerns over higher grocery prices and tighter budgets have a lot of Americans focused on their holiday spending this year and Thanksgiving is no exception. According to a new survey, 59% are planning to spend less on their Turkey Day feast than they did last year. The research from Popmenu reveals that the average consumer plans to spend $165 on the holiday meal.
But the poll from the restaurant tech company also finds that the focus on finances doesn’t mean people are making everything from scratch. In fact, the percentage of people leaning on restaurants for their Thanksgiving feasts continues to climb year over year.
- More than half (53%) of respondents are planning to order takeout or delivery from restaurants for their holiday dinner, up from 37% last year.
- Another 5% will be dining at a restaurant on Thanksgiving.
- The biggest reason people are relying on restaurants for their Turkey Day dinner is so they can spend more time celebrating the day and not worry about cooking (63%).
- Four in 10 believe it’s cheaper or costs about the same as buying all the ingredients and cooking at home and 35% just don’t want the hassle of having to prepare all that food themselves.
- A quarter (26%) admit they’d rather have a professionally cooked meal and 19% say they’re just too busy to make a meal or even a dish for Thanksgiving.
- Overall, 69% say groceries have become too expensive and 31% are being more conservative with spending because of concerns over the economy.
- To help keep costs down, 39% plan to make fewer side dishes and desserts, while a third are celebrating Thanksgiving with fewer people.
- Others are buying less expensive brands of food and drinks (31%), asking guests to bring a dish (29%), picking recipes with fewer ingredients (26%) or serving something less expensive for a main dish than turkey (19%).
Source: Fox 4KC