Why Turkey Wednesday Was a Boon for Grocers

Placer.ai report tracks Nov. 27 foot traffic across supermarkets, value chains

12/2/2024

02/05/2020 Chichester, West sussex, UK A Supermarket cashier scanning items at the checkout taking items from the conveyor belt that has products on; Shutterstock ID 1637268079

Grocery store visits on Nov. 27 were up slightly from the day before Thanksgiving last year.

The Thanksgiving holiday brought out millions of grocery shoppers last week, and location analytics and insights firm Placer.ai is taking a deep dive into where those shoppers chose to spend their hard-earned dollars on Turkey Wednesday.

In its new report, "Turkey Wednesday 2024: A Veritable Grocery Feast," Placer.ai found that grocery stores saw visits rise by 81% on Nov. 27 compared to a year-to-date daily average. Total grocery store visits on Nov. 27 were up 0.7% compared to last year’s Turkey Wednesday, which occurred on Nov. 22.

Traditional grocery stores like The Kroger Co., Albertsons Cos. and others experienced bigger pre-Thanksgiving visit boosts than limited-assortment value chains such as ALDI and Trader Joe’s, though the best-performing chains this year were regional players like Schnuck Markets and Jewel-Osco, which saw foot traffic surges of 103.9% and 92.6%, respectively.

Additionally, Food 4 Less, ShopRite, Key Food, Wegmans Food Markets and Stater Bros. Markets saw more than a 90% increase in foot traffic compared to this year’s daily averages.

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Those value chains did see other gains, however, with Grocery Outlet and ALDI experiencing year-over-year foot traffic increases of 13.5% and 11.2%, respectively. H-E-B, Ralph’s and Hannaford also saw foot traffic gains over last year’s Turkey Wednesday.

Placer.ai also reported that visits to liquor stores increased even more than visits to grocery stores, experiencing a 186.4% visit spike over last year. The company anticipates the run-up to Christmas to see even more foot traffic at liquor stores.

“Turkey Wednesday 2024 reaffirmed the key role played by traditional grocery stores in the run-up to Thanksgiving,” Placer.ai asserted in its report. “And though supermarkets and liquor stores stole the spotlight, superstores and discount and dollar stores also experienced significant visit upticks – and value chains are steadily growing their pre-holiday audiences.”