Here at Planet Money, Thanksgiving is not just a time to feast on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casseroles and pie(s). It's also a time to feast on economics. Today, we host a very Planet Money Thanksgiving feast, and solve a few economic questions along the way. First: a turkey mystery. Around the holidays, demand for turkey at grocery stores goes up by as much as 750%. And when turkey demand is so high, you might think that the price of turkey would also go up. But data shows, the price of whole turkeys actually falls around the holidays; it goes down by around 20%. So what's going on? The answer has to do what might be special about supply and demand around the holidays. We also reveal what is counted (and not counted) in the ways we measure the economy. And we look to economics to help solve the perennial Thanksgiving dilemma: Where should each dinner guest sit? Who should sit next to whom? This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Jeff Guo. It was produced by James Sneed with an assist from Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Josh Newell. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
Me, too.
And I'm not just talking about food here at planet money, thanksgiving is also about feasting on economics, starting right here at the supermarket.
Okay, let's see if we can find a shopping cart without a noisy wheel.
All right, let's see.
How's that one?
Amazing.
All right.
Got your shopping list?
I got my shopping list.
This year, we wanted to share our love of Thanksgiving, so we hatched a plan to make an entire Thanksgiving feast and have all of our planet money colleagues join us, or at least all of them who are available on a random Monday evening.
Let's see.
What are we gonna get?
Russet potatoes.
Those are the kind you want for your, like, mashed potatoes.
Extra starchy.
We got everything you could possibly need for a full on Thanksgiving dinner.
Butter.
We need four pounds of butter.