Nearly All U.S. Consumers Will Celebrate Thanksgiving, Survey Reveals

Nearly every family across the U.S. will celebrate Thanksgiving this year with more Americans planning to cook at home, a new consumer survey from Numerator revealed. 

Speaking with 4,500 consumers in September, more than 9 in 10 said they will be partaking in the American holiday. This year, 61% said they will cook and bake, up from 54% in 2022. Additionally 16% said they will travel for the holiday, up from 11% in the previous year.

With a larger number of Americans planning to celebrate the November holiday, 88% are planning to purchase food for their celebrations and one-third will be buying alcohol. 

Other notable results from the survey include: 

• Gen Z and Millennials (21%) are the most likely generations to travel this Thanksgiving.
• Consumers in the Midwest are most likely to attend or host gatherings (70%).
• The most popular food items consumers expect to purchase are a turkey or turkey breast (59%), dinner rolls or bread (54%), holiday pies (52%), stuffing/dressing (50%) and vegetables (48%).
• Consumers in the Western U.S. are twice as likely to purchase seafood or meat alternatives for Thanksgiving, compared to other regions.
• More than three-quarters (76%) of consumers plan to buy their Thanksgiving items at grocery stores, followed by mass retailers such as Walmart or Target (37%) and club retailers such as Costco or Sam’s Club (29%).
• Among those who plan to purchase alcoholic beverages for their celebrations, 70% plan to buy wine, followed by beer (57%) and spirits (28%).
• Turkey buying is returning to pre-pandemic norms. In the month leading up to Thanksgiving 2019, 29.7% of U.S. households purchased turkey. That number spiked to 37% in 2020, but slid back to 31.1% in 2022.