What’s Working: Thanksgiving dinner in Colorado will cost less than last year, as grocers eat the loss
Quick links: Why turkeys cost more | DEN travel tips | AMP and the nation’s largest recycling center | Petroleum Building converting to apartments |Reader poll results
The math doesn’t quite add up. This year, wholesale turkey prices are 40% higher than a year ago. There’s been food inflation, plus tariffs on imports like coffee, beef and tomatoes that pushed prices even higher, though tariffs on 200 items were rolled back last week.
But according to the local and national farm bureaus, the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people declined 5.3% in the U.S. and 8.1% in Colorado compared with last year.
Bad math? Not for consumers, apparently. Retailers are likely eating the loss, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, which noted in its latest cost of Thanksgiving dinner report, “grocery stores are featuring Thanksgiving deals and attempting to draw consumer demand back to turkey, leading to lower retail prices for a holiday bird.”
The U.S. average was $55.18 for a meal that serves 10 people. In Colorado, the same feast cost $65.94.
While that makes the same meal $10 more expensive in Colorado, the price is about $10 less than last year, thanks to a 13.4% price drop for the turkey, plus double-digit savings on milk, frozen green peas, frozen pie shells and pumpkin pie mix. (Vegetables, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls and cubed stuffing cost more.)
“It was really cool to see Colorado-specific numbers this year because we went down,” said Melissa Weaver, spokesperson for the Colorado Farm Bureau. “Hopefully that’s a little bit more affordable for people this year.”
Why turkeys should cost more
Turkey prices have every right to be higher this year, said David Corsun, director of the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management at University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.
“The first thing that’s going on is that the national turkey population is down by a significant number and that’s driving prices for the center of the plate up,” Corsun said.
U.S. farmers raised 20% fewer turkeys in 2025, compared to the last peak in 2019, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation
Multiple other reasons are also contributing to higher prices. Food inflation is around 3% higher than a year ago. Labor costs are higher and the cost of prepared meals followed suit.
The poultry industry is also still recovering from avian flu, which wiped out most of Colorado’s egg-laying hens in the past few years. (There are no current outbreaks in domestic birds right now but the virus is still circulating in wild birds, according to Olga Robak, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Agriculture).
“It’s safe to say that regardless, prices are up and people will pay more,” Corsun said. “There’s a lot of people who won’t have a choice because of the shape of the economy. The recovery has been K-shaped, where people who have, have more and people who don’t have, have less.”
So for the cost of the Thanksgiving meal to be lower than last year, one of two things is happening.
“One is that the top line price that supermarkets are paying is less and I find that dubious,” he said. “The second is that they’re sacrificing margin and they’re doing it to drive volume. That’s how they’re planning on making the money.”
King Soopers and Safeway ads for the week of Thanksgiving 2025 advertise turkeys starting at $0.89 a pound. (Tamara Chuang, The Colorado Sun).
Some grocers are reporting their lowest Thanksgiving meal prices in years. They’re trying to get shoppers back into stores and buying turkeys.
Asked about the impact on Colorado grocers, a local Safeway spokesperson responded, “Safeway is offering a free turkey with the purchase of $100,” Heather Halpape said in an email. “Additionally, we have Butterball turkeys on sale for just 97 cents per pound with a digital coupon, providing another affordable option.”
Sales on whole turkeys continue into next week for several local stores. King Soopers advertises a frozen Kroger turkey for 89 cents a pound (loyalty card and $25 purchase required). The price is good through Thanksgiving day.
But buying a frozen turkey this late might not be a wise decision. A fresh, never-frozen, free-range turkey from Natural Grocers starts at $4.99 a pound, or 20-cents more than last year. Brined turkeys are up 50 cents. But all other turkey items are the same price, or less, including bone-in breasts that are 30 cents lower, at $10.69 a pound.
“Holiday budgets matter, and we’re proud that most of our turkey offerings are priced the same as last year, with only small adjustments on a few items,” said Katie Macarelli, a spokesperson for the Lakewood-based grocer, in an email. “In fact, one of our most popular cuts — bone-in breasts — is actually a bit less expensive.”
➔ Want to buy Colorado produce? Potatoes, grain and refined sugar made from sugar beets are top produce from local farmers, said Weaver, with the Colorado Farm Bureau. “Go get your carbs,” she said. “Molecularly, sugar beets and sugar cane are the same. They just grow differently and are processed differently to get the same product of refined sugar.”
T-Day travel tips:
Travelers queue up to pass through a security checkpoint in the main terminal of Denver International Airport, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
➔ Brace yourself. Thanksgiving travel has begun. It officially started Friday, according to the Denver International Airport. Between Friday and the Monday after Thanksgiving, the airport is forecasting 845,000 travelers who’ll be making their way through DEN’s TSA checkpoints, a nearly 10% increase from last Thanksgiving. The busiest day? Sunday, Nov. 30. More than 96,000 travelers are expected to be screened.
➔ Hitting the road? You and 73 million other Americans! That’s what AAA is predicting this Thanksgiving. Between the Tuesday before holiday and the Monday after, that 2% increase from last year is how many more folks plan to drive at least 50 miles from home for Thanksgiving. That is a new record, according to the automotive club.
Another 6 million will be flying while 2.5 million are taking a bus, train or cruise. For drivers in Colorado, the peak congestion will be driving from Pueblo to Denver on Interstate 25 on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. It’s expected to be 64% busier than usual. >> More stats
Poll results: Readers and Thanksgiving 2025
The results are in for the latest What’s Working reader poll. Turkey is still the most popular dish for Thanksgiving. At 53.2%, more folks still choose turkeys for their tables than the rest of the U.S., which is at 39%, according to the American Farm Bureau.
Sun economy stories you may have missed
The Joint Budget Committee meets at the Colorado Capitol complex in Denver on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)
➔ “Even worse than we thought”: Colorado is stuck in a cycle of annual, $1B state budget shortfalls. Each year the cycle continues, state lawmakers will have fewer ways to address the gap without cutting state programs and services. Skyrocketing Medicaid costs are primarily to blame. >> Read story
➔ The non-DOGE effort to suss out underused federal properties toured Denver Federal Center this week. The director of an independent board created during the Obama administration visited the Lakewood federal workforce campus as part of a data-gathering mission >> Read story
➔ Billionaire landowner erecting 8-foot-tall fence in San Luis gets “cease and desist” from state water officials. The notice orders the Cielo Vista Ranch to stop violating the Water Quality Control Act and correct the damages caused by fence construction >> Read story
The front of the building on Josephine Street Friday, Nov. 7 at The Regina Apartments in Capitol Hill. The Regina is one of more than 300 buildings where Cornerstone manages apartments. (Claudia A. Garcia, Special to The Colorado Sun)
➔ Are rent prices in Denver actually falling? Here’s a look behind the industry data. With free months and other concessions, Denver’s rents may be falling faster than the industry data shows. But not everyone is seeing lower rents. >> Read story
➔ Rate of people in Colorado without health insurance holds steady, despite massive Medicaid drop. The every-other-year Colorado Health Access Survey found that 5.9% of Coloradans in 2025 do not have health insurance >> Read story
➔ Trump’s funding cuts hit a tiny Colorado county in the middle of a transportation overhaul. Now what? Three other Southwestern Colorado communities lost out when the Trump administration cut $7.5 million in green energy funding to blue states like Colorado >> Read story
Other working bits
➔ Colorado firm will build nation’s largest robotic recycling plant. AMP has come a long way from robotic arms that pick aluminium cans from a trash sorter to send for recycling. On Friday, the Louisville trash tech company said it signed a 20-year contract with a Virginia waste management company that serves 1.2 million customers. AMP developed automated machines that can sort through waste and pick out recyclables.
Residential and commercial customers can toss all their trash into a single bin. AMP will sort out recyclables and organic materials at two sortation facilities in nearby Portsmouth, Virginia, and work with a third facility to turn the organic materials into biochar, which can be used for soil amendment. The new partnership is expected to recycle 20% of customer waste, which is double the highest recycling rate in the region. >> Details
Rendering of the updated Petroleum building at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway in Denver. Developers announced Nov. 19, 2025, that they are converting the 14-story office tower into 178 market-rate apartments. (Provided by Borst & Company)
➔ Denver’s Petroleum Building will live again. Business cratered at the 14-story Petroleum Building in downtown Denver during the pandemic as a plan to sell the office tower got scuttled. Now developers are converting it into rentals, with the blessing of the Downtown Development Authority, which is providing a $14 million low-interest loan to cover 20% of the project’s cost and must be paid back in 10 years. The contract is still being worked out and will need approval by the Denver City Council.
Built in 1957, the midcentury building was the tallest at the time and provided office space for mostly companies in the oil industry. Sidenote: The owners’ suite on the 14th floor at one time was a co-working space where The Sun got its start.
The plan is to turn it into 178 market-rate apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. Tim Borst, the building’s owner and developer, said that converting the tower at this prime intersection of Broadway and 16th Street “is a critical component of revitalizing the heart of Denver,” he said.
Construction is expected to start next spring and be completed by the summer of 2027. >> Read up on its history
➔ Wireless-tech manufacturer picks Colorado Springs. Terra Ferma, which makes communications technology for the wireless industry, committed to opening a new plant in Colorado Springs and creating 120 new jobs with an average wage of $68,108, according to the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade. If it does hire all those workers within an eight-year period, the company stands to collect $1,010,584 in tax credits as part of the state incentive program. The city and county also approved other incentives that total around $230,000. The company currently employs nine people, with eight already in the state. >> Details
➔ 25 Colorado startups awarded $5.2 million in grants. It’s part of the state’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Program. It’s an effort by the state to recognize research and provide some funding if the startups are working on “transformative technologies.” Four of the 25 mention “artificial intelligence” as a focus. >> See the winners list
Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co/heyww
What’s Working is thankful to readers like you!
There won’t be a newsletter next week but we’ll be back Dec. 6 with an update from rural reporter Tracy Ross. Until then, please share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. Happy Thanksgiving! ~ tamara
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