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Stores offer deals on holiday meal staples

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Dale Hokrein

dhokrein@tampatrib.com

Published: November 13, 2009

Give some thanks for a relatively inexpensive holiday meal. This week, our Market Basket round-up of grocery store prices includes a handful of items for a traditional Thanksgiving meal – all of which can be purchased for about $20, depending on the size of your turkey.

Other products we track regularly, from eggs and bacon to bread and Cheerios, have remained relatively level.

Except, that is, for milk and other dairy items.

Milk is consistently staying above the $3 per gallon mark for most of the five supermarkets we track. When we began tracking local prices 10 weeks ago, shoppers could easily find milk for under three bucks. Walmart has consistently been the low price leader, selling milk this week for $2.68 a gallon.

And while we haven't been tracking the price of turkeys, we've noticed that the price per pound of the cheapest birds have crept up. Last week you could buy a turkey at Walmart for 40 cents a pound. This week, it's 69 cents, and other stores had them between 88 and 99 cents a pound.

Here's some observations from our shopping trek this week:

Winn-Dixie
If macaroni and cheese is on your Thanksgiving menu, you might want to pick up some boxes of the Velveeta brand at Winn-Dixie, which is offering a two-for-one deal this week. That means you can get two 12-ounce boxes for $2.69.

Other deals that might factor into your holiday meal planning include two more BOGO (buy one, get one) specials. Winn-Dixie is selling two, 14-ounce cans of Swanson broth for $1.25 and two, 10.5-ounce cans of Campbell's canned gravy for $1.39. The Thanksgiving turkeys have also arrived, with Butterballs on sale for 99 cents a pound.

Overall, the entire Market Basket list came in at $78.90 -- $1.12 cheaper than last week.

- Jeffrey W. Scullin

Target
Target seems to be in the holiday sprit. It's giving shoppers a break on some traditional holiday items.
Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, a staple of many Thanksgiving meals, is on sale for 59 cents, a drop from its usual $1.12. Stove Top stuffing is on sale for 79 cents, down from 1.74. A 14-ounce can of cranberry sauce is 99 cents, down from 1.34.

- Shannon Behnken

Publix
A good number of items in that iconic Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving painting went on sale this week at Publix. Beer went on sale too, though it didn't appear in that painting. Store staff have arranged three main areas for deals: Hot food, desert and beer/TV.

For hot dinner: Canned yams, butter (sale on Land o Lakes brand,) potatoes ($1 off) and Stove Top stuffing (BOGO.) Frozen turkeys are also on deep discount, 69 cents per pound.

For those making deserts, there are organized arrangements at the store entrances: Brown sugar, chocolate chips, Karo syrup, flour, corn starch, sprinkles, coconut shavings and pie crusts.

And for the football and drinking crowd, there are some deals too, BOGO on Emerald nuts, (save $5.79) BOGO Doritos (save $3.79). An 18-pack of Bud Light is $1.89 off for $13.49 and Corona 12 packs at $11.99, (save $1.70.)

And for leftovers, Publix put aluminum foil on sale.

- Richard Mullins

Sweetbay
They're stacking the 3-gallon jugs of frying oil right next to the freezer case with the Jennie-O turkeys.

Don't forget to thaw the bird if you opt for the adventure of cooking your holiday bird in this manner. The 3-gallon jugs, which contain peanut oil for sustained high frying temperatures, costs $24.99.

That's on the low end of prices over the course of the year. You'd think this was crude oil as much as they fluctuate.

The frozen turkeys run 69 cents a pound, so a 12-pounder will cost you $8.28.

There's a good deal on Bruce's Cut Yams, too, if you buy the big 40-ounce can. It's just 1.79, compared to $1.13 for the 15-ounce can.

Other Sweetbay deals of note this week include cooked shrimp at $4.99 a pound, $2 off the normal price, and two kinds of pork chops at about half price -- center cut rib pork chops at $2.19 a pound and an "assorted pork chops value pack" at $1.29 a pound.

- Dennis Joyce

Walmart
If you're conditioned to always reach for the store brand to save money, you might want to re-think that strategy when shopping at Walmart for holiday staples.

Right now, national brands are offered for considerably cheaper than the generic equivalents. Stove Top stuffing is on sale for 78 cents while the Great Value brand is not much of a value at $1.08. Del Monte cut green beans are 67 cents, while the Great Value brand is 86 cents.

Campbell's cream of mushroom soup is 58 cents compared to the GV brand at $1.14.

One exception is Ocean Spray cranberry sauce is 88 cents, 6 cents higher than the store brand, but it's the holidays, why not treat yourself?

- Janine Dorsey

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