Food Prices and Inflation

Retailers are aggressively discounting turkeys with doorbuster deals and loss‑leader promos to draw shoppers, even as avian flu and avian metapneumovirus have cut the U.S. flock to a 40‑year low and led USDA to project wholesale turkey prices could jump about 44% after more than 2 million birds were lost. The discounts have pushed some retail turkey prices and its share of the meal down and kept overall Thanksgiving meal estimates flat or slightly lower year‑over‑year, but many sides — from sweet potatoes to canned goods — are costlier due to crop damage, tariffs and other supply pressures despite lower feed costs from record corn and soybean harvests.