A free turkey for Thanksgiving is a giveaway from supermarkets and other businesses that's almost as old of a tradition as Thanksgiving itself.
But according to a new nationwide survey of 1,201 American shoppers from Precima, a retail analytics company, grocery stores may have trouble getting the next generation of Thanksgiving hosts excited about this tried-and-true marketing gimmick.
The survey sought to gauge whether respondents would be more likely to shop at a supermarket that offers turkey giveaways. Just 27 percent of Millennials said that receiving a free bird was important to them versus 66 percent of Generation X shoppers.
That attitude could change over time. A lot of Millennials are in their twenties and probably more likely to be guests at Thanksgiving dinners instead of the ones preparing the meal. Buying a turkey may not really be on their radar yet. Secondly, turkeys are often loss-leaders, products that supermarkets are willing to lose money on because they know if you buy a cheap one, you'll spend money on a lot of other food products. Millennials may not care about getting free turkeys because they're already practically free.
But giving away free turkeys at Thanksgiving has been a big deal for businesses, so much so that it's difficult to imagine them ever going away as a marketing tool.
Businesses have been offering free turkey as a way to entice customers to come in the doors as far back as the 1800s, a search through the online newspaper archive at the Cincinnati Public Library shows.
In 1887, in Hamilton, Ohio, The Cincinnati Enquirer mentions that most of the saloons in the city were offering a free turkey lunch on Thanksgiving. The drinks, presumably, were not on the house.
Many ads that ran in November throughout the 1890s had headlines like, "Turkeys for Nothing" and "Turkeys Free." There was a catch, of course. In order to receive your live turkey (yes, back then it was quite common to be given a live turkey), you had to buy a suit of men's clothes, or perhaps a ladies' coat over $3.50 in value.
In 1908, the J.Back & Co, a clothing store in St. Louis, ran an ad in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, stating that if you spent $8, you'd get a free dressed turkey. You could even buy on credit and still get the free turkey.
By the 1920s, furniture stores were in on the action. For instance, in mid-November 1926, The Washington Post, Peerless Furniture Company ran ads promising a free turkey to anyone who bought a 10-piece dining room suite for $129.
Clearly, business owners have always had a different understanding of the word, "free," than the rest of us.
After awhile, it seems that there was no business that wouldn't offer up a "free" turkey as a sales gimmick. For instance, during the Thanksgiving season of 1972, in New Britain, Connecticut, Royal Tire Service, which is still in business, ran an ad in the paper offering a free turkey from Sussman's Giant Foods, which is not around any longer, to any customer who bought two snow tires ($16.95 a piece, if you're wondering what that would have set you back in 1972).
By the 1980s, supermarkets finally recognized what a great marketing tool they had and began offering free turkeys to consumers who spent a lot of money, and even those stores that didn't offer the free turkeys were slashing their prices, with the idea that if you came to buy a cheap turkey, you might stick around to buy the cranberries, the mashed potatoes and everything else that goes with a Thanksgiving meal.
Well into the 21st century, supermarkets are still offering free turkeys – as long as you're willing to spend a lot of money on everything else. For instance, the grocery store ShopRite, a chain in the Northeast and East, has a well known annual free turkey give away promotion. They actually don't say on their website how much you have to spend, but you have to spend a certain amount from October 18 to November 26, and if you do, you get your free bird. The store keeps track of what you're spending (if you get a membership to the store). According to LivingRichWithCoupons.com, most stores require consumers to spend $400 to get the free turkey.
So "free" turkey giveaways are an important marketing tool in November and have been spanning three centuries now. While it seems unlikely that they're going to go away, Graeme McVie, vice president of business development for Precima, says that supermarkets would be smart to dress up their turkey giveaways, if they want to attract more Millennials.
"Their attitudes are obviously very different than their older counterparts," he says.
What else should supermarkets be doing? McVie thinks that providing turkeys that are easier to prepare, come with appropriate garnishing or providing easy-to-serve accompaniments to the main course would be a good start.
"The Millennial generation in particular is looking for advice on how to best prepare foods so grocers could benefit from providing in-store chefs, experts or advisors," McVie suggests.
And one could argue that free turkey giveaways will still continue, and should, because from what McVie has seen, Millennials don't seem ready to abandon the bird.
"I think there’s a possibility that some Millennials will try some new staples for Thanksgiving, but so far there is no evidence that I have seen that the turkey will be replaced wholesale," McVie says.
"If anything," he adds, "there’s a greater chance that we’ll see Millennials putting a creative spin on traditional means of turkey preparation, such as grilling, frying, and smoking, and adding some interesting new accompaniments to the traditional turkey dinner. For example, [serving] quinoa instead of mashed potatoes or kale instead of Brussel sprouts."
A supermarket that can show a Millennial how to make a creative or traditional Thanksgiving meal, especially if it's their first Thanksgiving dinner that they're hosting, can win over that customer for life, McVie says.
But a supermarket that only relies on giving away "free" turkeys, if you spend a small fortune, and does nothing else to entice the next generation? That strategy is for the birds.
