Posted at: 11/11/2009 12:28 PM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 11/11/2009 6:38 PM
By: Lynette Adams

 |  Print Story

A Thanksgiving dinner for less than $20?

You may have seen the ads and heard the promises - a Thanksgiving meal for $20, $25 dollars. Is it true?

Chili resident Lita Bagley can't believe it's possible to feed eight people for thanksgiving for less than what a tank of gas would cost. “My daughter's 10 and I don't think I've ever had a thanksgiving dinner for my kids! So may I'll look into so they can have a home cooked meal, rather than the one that we usually do.”

If you don't mind doing the cooking, local retailers like Wal-Mart and Wegmans are offering a thanksgiving meal for pennies, starting next week.

Wegmans is advertising a $25 dollar meal for eight people. So what do you get? That amount includes a frozen turkey at 29-cents a pound, a bag of potatoes, mushroom soup, French fried onions and frozen green beans.

Wegmans Spokesperson Jo Natale said, “We absolutely want people to come to Wegmans to shop. There's no question about that. And as we do every week of the year, we're checking food prices at other retailers to make sure our prices are lower and Thanksgiving week is no different.”

During the holiday's, Natale says Wegmans is banking on great quality and great service to bring people in instead of Wal-Mart, where it's offering a Thanksgiving meal for $20.

Wal-Mart Assistant Manager Ryan Miller, “We have everything from the vegetables to the rolls, to the cranberry sauce, stuffing, the turkeys for as low as 40-cents. We have it all for a family of eight for as low as $20 and that's our ultimate goal to feed them for a low cost.”

And in a tough economy, customers say every little bit makes a difference.

If money isn't a consideration, Wegmans offers a prepared turkey dinner with all the trimmings for eight to 10 people for $79. Tops offers a smaller, but similar dinner for $59.99.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.