Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - While we're still six days away from Halloween on Monday, some people may already be looking ahead to Thanksgiving, as they plan their get-together with family and friends this holiday season.
However, given concerns with the avian bird flu that has plagued a number of turkey houses nationwide this year, could there be a concern with the availability for turkeys this fall?
While there is some concern over a shortage of turkeys overall, the primary concern heading into Thanksgiving this year comes with the variety of sizes for turkeys.
"From what we're hearing from the suppliers, in most cases, there'll be plenty of smaller birds available, but if you have a large family and you typically buy that 25, 28, 30-pound bird, they are going to be in much-tighter supply," said Mark Mahoney, President of Dash's Market. "You're going to want to get those birds early in that week, if that's the size your family requires."
Suppliers are alerting some stores this holiday season there might be a chance of a supply issue with turkeys, but that's more with regards to some orders being put in not being filled to 100%.
"The avian flu that's come across the country, a lot of turkey houses were affected by that and they lost all those birds. So there's gonna be a little bit of shortages," said Mark Strub - Owner and President of Ford Brothers Wholesale Meats in West Valley. "I still think you're gonna find turkey, no problem, but maybe just not quite the size you're looking for."
According to a report from the USDA nearly a week ago, the price per-pound of an 8-to-16-pound turkey saw an increase of 73%. That increase is being reflected in local supermarkets and grocery stores with less than a month remaining until Thanksgiving.
"We don't know the exact costs from our wholesaler yet, but we're looking at turkeys probably been about 50-to-75% higher in cost than last year," said owner of Market in the Square, Brian Kusmierski.
"You're not gonna see prices like you did last year. It's going to be quite different."
"I've seen it in chicken, I've seen it in eggs with this avian bird flu that the cost of all the poultry has been up. So I think it would be safe to say you're going to pay somewhat higher prices than last year," Mahoney added. "We're probably a little early to determine what that new price will be."
The good news for local markets going forward is the turkey supply should be just fine. However, you may not want to wait until the last minute to get your turkey.
"Some of the suppliers have already informed us we won't be getting some of our large birds, and we've already had the X number of small birds put aside and locked up," Mahoney said. "As the large ones sell and people might have to pick up two small ones to compensate for a large one, it could get a little dicey in the last couple of days,"
With concerns surrounding the supply and cost of turkeys present to varying degrees heading into Thanksgiving, should people be concerned if they decide to switch things up and go another route regarding meat for their dinners?
"I think all your other odds-and-ends for your turkey dinners are going to be there. And then there's always different options if you can't find a turkey, you'd be looking at ham or a different item. But I still think you're gonna be able to find them," Strub said.
Aside from turkey concerns, are there any other Thanksgiving essentials that could make this holiday season impact the consumer's wallet?
"It seems like most of the canned goods, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, potatoes aren't in very good supply," Mahoney said. "I don't think there's much other at this point, unless you can always get some weather out in California or Florida that could affect some of the lettuces and that. But I think right now, we're OK with all the other supplies."
"I've talked to our people in grocery and the perishable departments, and our bakery department is stocking up on things that they say might possibly be short, like cream cheese and stuff like that. We're building our inventory so we can take care of our customers here," Kusmierski added. "Same thing with grocery items like the baking staples - sugar, flour, confectionery sugar, brown sugar - that type of thing, we're building up our inventory in stores so that we can handle the customers that come to us."
