Retail

A 2025 Wells Fargo report found that the cost of a 10-person Thanksgiving meal fell 2% to 3% compared with 2024, with the exact change depending on whether consumers chose national name brands or cheaper store-label products.

Walmart's 2025 Thanksgiving meal basket was priced under $40 and marketed to feed 10 people (about $4 per person), while Walmart's 2024 Thanksgiving basket was priced at about $56 and marketed to feed eight people (about $7 per person); the 2025 basket contained 15 items compared with 29 items in the 2024 basket.

Large supermarket chains commonly use loss-leader strategies by selling staple holiday items such as turkeys at or below cost to attract shoppers and drive sales of higher-margin products like wine, desserts, and seasonal décor.

Grocery retailers commonly reduce the size of bundled meal offers or substitute private-label (store-brand) items in bundles as a cost-management tactic to maintain lower advertised prices.

The 'direct import' retail model involves retailers placing large orders months ahead and using their own logistics operations to import goods into the U.S. to boost margins.

The 'domestic shipping' sourcing model involves suppliers handling importing and warehousing while retailers place smaller, closer-to-need orders.

A 2025 forecast by Challenger, Gray & Christmas projected that overall U.S. holiday hiring for the last three months of 2025 would likely be under 500,000 positions, lower than the 543,000 seasonal hires reported for 2024 and representing the smallest seasonal gain since 2009 when retailers hired 495,800 temporary workers.

A 2025 Visa Business and Economic Insights holiday spending outlook forecasts U.S. consumers to spend an average of $736 each on holiday gifts in 2025, a 10% increase from $669 in 2024.

The 2025 Visa Business and Economic Insights holiday spending outlook uses U.S. Department of Commerce retail sales data that excludes automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants for its holiday spending projections.

Retailers commonly hire temporary seasonal workers during the holiday selling season to staff distribution centers, serve shoppers in stores, and construct holiday displays.

Retailers commonly hire seasonal workers to handle increased holiday shopping demand, typically concentrating hiring in the period from November 1 to December 31.

Retailers may limit new seasonal hiring by asking existing store employees to pick up additional shifts during the holiday season.

Companies sometimes pass a portion of import tariffs onto consumers, contributing to higher retail prices.

The Kirkland Signature Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG has a universal product code (UPC) of 196633883742 and a Costco item number of 1879870.

Some retailers, including McDonald's and Kwik Trip, round cash transaction totals to the nearest five cents when pennies are unavailable.

Some restaurant chains, such as Wendy's, instruct their locations to round cash transactions down to the nearest nickel when experiencing penny shortages.

Retailers may encourage cashless payments as a response to coin shortages and may run promotions or exchange programs to collect pennies for making change (example actions reported by Sheetz and Giant Eagle).

Starbucks' Red Cup Day is typically one of the company's busiest retail days of the year.

AI-powered chat interfaces can suggest specific products based on conversational prompts and enable consumers to complete purchases within the chat application without leaving the interface.