Nov 25, 2009 7:23 pm US/Eastern
Shoppers Swarm Grocery Stores On Thanksgiving Eve
ARDSLEY, N.Y. (CBS) ―
Forget Black Friday at the mall, when it comes to holiday hustle, put a grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving at the top of the list.
The holiday hustle was in full swing at area grocery stores on Wednesday, as shoppers flocked to pick up turkeys and last-minute ingredients.
Shopper George Samuels of New Rochelle said he would not go to a mall on the day after thanksgiving, but that he was at Stew Leonard's in Yonkers Wednesday "because I need to. Because I need to."
It's so busy at the store that when workers asked for the day off, "We kind of asked, begged and pleaded with them, see if they can please come in and we'll make it up to them at another time," said Stew Leonard's president Tom Arthur.
Arthur said they've been slammed since the weekend. "Every single day it's been busy, busy, busy."
As you can imagine, on the day before Thanksgiving the big sellers are the turkeys, and this year Leonard's sold a record number. More than 12,000 birds flew out of that one store alone, along with 10,000 apple, pumpkin and pecan pies.
In Ardsley, the DeCicco Market was also stuffed with shoppers, including another guy who'd never go near the mall on Black Friday.
"This is out of necessity. I consider the day after Thanksgiving more of a choice. I won't put up with the hassle the day after but I have to the day before," said Joe Schmit.
Turned out many shoppers liked to wait until the last minute to get their holiday meal ingredients. "Yep, we wanted to get everything fresh" one woman said.
"Everyone's coming in for their produce, everyone's coming in for their fresh turkey right out the door," said Mike Puma, store manager.
And shoppers were gobbling up birds there too. DeCicco's reports a significant uptick in business this year versus last. "Fantastic. Much better than last year actually," Puma said.
Those are signs of economic life we can all be thankful for this holiday season.
The "American Farm Bureau Federation" said the cost to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal is down about 4-percent this year, thanks mostly to lower prices for turkey and milk.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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