Why the Cost of Turkeys Can Vary So Drastically

Anna Lipin for Lucky Peach

Illustration by Mark Pernice for Lucky Peach

How many times a year do you plop a whole turkey into your oven (or, if you’re adventurous, your deep fryer)? Chances are the answer is in the single digits. So I wasn’t surprised that my September trip to Stop & Shop’s “Flavorful Meat” department didn’t feature any turkeys; the only turkey in the supermarket had been languishing in the freezer since last year. Al, the smiling middle-aged butcher manning the deli case, dived in to the check the price. The frozen bird was stamped at $1.49 per pound, less than the chicken on the shelves.

But come October, the “fresh” season begins, and the Stop & Shop distribution center will start receiving turkeys from suppliers — and come November, competition for your family’s Thanksgiving centerpiece is fierce. With turkeys averaging upwards of thirty pounds, a holiday bird can mean a hefty investment.

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But how hefty?

A Honeysuckle White turkey from a Walmart or Kroger would set you back around a dollar per pound. An Ekonk Hill pasture-raised turkeys cost $4.79 per pound from its farm store in Moosup, Connecticut. Schatzie Prime Meats in New York offers holiday birds for $4.98 per pound.

I spoke to Rick Hermonot, the man behind the Connecticut-based Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm; Cargill’s director of communications Mike Martin and Jan Hood, marketing leader for Cargill’s turkey brands{1}, and Schatzie (née Tony Schatz, which nobody calls him) of New York’s Schatzie’s Prime Meats to understand the levers behind the massive price discrepancy between these two kinds of birds—and the options in between.

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THE SPACE

“You can call anything free-range, as long as it’s outside,” says Schatzie. He confided that he had met farmers around Pennsylvania and New York who had achieved the free-range label—and the premium that customers will pay for it, usually three or four more dollars per pound—simply by breaking down a wall.

“Pasture raised,” on the other hand, means that although there’s a coop stocked with feed and water, the birds have freedom to run around. At Ekonk Hill the turkeys peck at ten acres of clover, grass, and bugs. That diet makes for a tastier bird, and the exercise makes for healthier chickens. Hermonot describes this as the difference between “a person who goes to a health club and runs twenty miles a day” and a “couch potato.” When it comes to animals raised for their meat, a sedentary life means a quicker (and therefore cheaper) entrance into a store near you.

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THE FEED

Hermonot’s turkeys are fed a mixture of corn, soybeans, vitamins, and minerals. He says that his turkeys burn so many calories versus those kept cooped up that he estimates it takes him twice as much feed to raise the same size bird.

For Cargill, feed is the most expensive element of turkey husbandry; Martin estimated that 70 percent of turkey production cost is devoted to the birds’ nutrition. But Cargill, unlike Ekonk Hill, also has a vertically integrated system: the vast company produces all of the ingredients and implements that impact a turkey’s life, from the feed to the processing plants (they have four facilities spread across the country). When corn prices are high, they absorb the costs instead of passing them onto their 700 farm contractors. Thus their prices remain steady, and low.

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Although growth hormones are not allowed in any poultry in the U.S. (Cargill representatives say that brands write hormone free on their packaging because “consumers aren’t aware”), large producers that need to sustain a reliable torrent of inexpensive turkeys feed their flocks “a preventative level of antibiotics,” according to Hermonot. The antibiotics make birds grow bigger, faster—and lower the risk of premature turkey death.

THE CHILL

The electricity and construction costs of freezers are a factor in turkey prices—even for some turkeys that aren’t sold or labeled as “frozen.” “Even when a turkey is labeled ‘fresh’ in the supermarket, they were what they call ‘hard-chilled,’” says Hermonot. “They don’t have to say they were frozen as long as they were never below ten degrees. If a turkey is frozen to fifteen degrees, you don’t have to call it “frozen” by the commercial industry standards.”

Essentially, it’s hard to know exactly when your turkey was still flapping its wings. Cargill explained that this is partly because “the whole U.S. demand is way higher than what would be available at the holidays.” There are simply not enough turkeys being killed around Thanksgiving-time for all Americans to have a freshly slaughtered bird. Frozen turkeys are necessary to meet the sharp peak in demand—and keeping rooms filled with carcasses is not without its costs.

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THE STORES

Cargill birds are sold under the Shady Brook Farms label on the East Coast and Honeysuckle White in the rest of the country, and are deployed at Whole Foods, Kroger, Price Chopper, and Walmart. These stores then engage in “pricing wars,” where turkey is used as a loss leader: a product that is sold to the consumer for less than the grocer purchased it for, with the hope that other, more profitable products will cover the difference. For example, in past years Cargill has sold frozen whole turkeys to retailers at $1.25 per pound, which were priced to shoppers at 88 cents per pound. If you were to go into a supermarket and only buy a cheap turkey, you’re getting a steal.

But that’s not how supermarket trips work. When’s the last time you bought one item during a trip to the store or had one item on your Thanksgiving table? Turkey gets customers in the door; the other stuff keeps them around. Martin explained the psychology behind turkey advertising: “[retailers] know that if somebody comes in and they buy a whole turkey in that store, that’s not the only thing that’s going to be in that grocery basket.” In go cranberries, he said, plus potatoes to be mashed and a pound of butter and the makings of gravy and biscuits. It’s the rest of your grocery basket that “pulls that retail ring for the customer.” Supermarkets bet that customers will scrutinize the big-ticket, attention-grabbing holiday items. All the smaller items—with their higher profit margins—add up.

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On the other hand, loyal customers fork up $4.98 per pound at Schatzie’s—while customers that can’t afford to buy his meat year-round splurge on Thanksgiving.

The local families that patronize the Ekonk Hill pay $4.79 per pound for the turkeys. Schatzie gushed with stories of customers who bought the pasture-raised birds after eating frozen turkeys for years. “I have them for life,” he said.

Both Schatzie and Hermonot, though, emphasized that when it comes to the provenance of your Thanksgiving bird, you work within your means. If you can afford to purchase from a local farm that invests in the well-being (and flavor) of the birds, go ahead and do so. If “you’re on welfare, you don’t have any money?” said Schatzie. “Go to the supermarket, buy what’s on sale, do the best you can to take care of your family. If you can afford to buy something a little better, buy it once a year. You’ll be happy you did it.”

This article originally appeared in Lucky Peach.