Two big Thanksgiving baskets, two very different tables, Stringbeans! Target and Wegmans both announced their holiday meals this month, and both promise about $5 a person — but the headlines hide some fine print. We laid them side by side, did the per-person math, and flagged exactly where each headline doesn't tell the whole story, so you can pick the basket that fits YOUR table.
🎯 TARGET — $30 FOR SIX · NOV 8–29The basket: a Butterball whole turkey (up to 10 lb), a 3 lb bag of Good & Gather russet potatoes, Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce, two cans of Del Monte French-style green beans, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, Good & Gather French fried onions, Stove Top turkey stuffing, Heinz homestyle turkey gravy, and a 2-count Favorite Day take-and-bake baguette — green bean casserole fixings included. At $30 even, that's $5.00 a person. THE CATCH: the turkey is priced by the pound at 79¢ — the $30 headline leans on that per-pound price for a bird up to 10 lb (about $7.90 of the total), so a bigger turkey pushes your total past $30, roughly 13¢ more per person for every extra pound. There's also no dessert in this basket — budget a few dollars for a pie. Prices are before tax and the offer skips Alaska and Hawaii.
🛒 WEGMANS — UNDER $40 FOR EIGHT · NOV 8–28The basket: a 13 lb Shady Brook Farms frozen turkey, Stove Top stuffing twin pack, two McCormick brown gravy mixes, 5 lb of russet potatoes, 3 lb of yams, two Wegmans mac & cheese, green bean casserole fixings (cut green beans, cream of mushroom soup, French fried onions), two cans of corn, jellied cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, two Jiffy corn muffin mixes, chicken stock, a 2 lb bag of yellow onions — and dessert is covered with a Sara Lee frozen pumpkin pie. Under $40 for eight means under $5.00 a person, with a bigger bird AND pie included. THE CATCH: the special turkey price only runs Nov 8–22, a full week shorter than the rest of the basket (through Nov 28) — buy the bird early and give it its three days to thaw. And Wegmans is an East Coast treat: if there's no store near you, this one's a spectator sport.
🏆 THE BOTTOM LINESix chairs or fewer? Target's basket is the tidy pick — $5.00 a person, and its prices run one day longer, through Sun Nov 29; just keep the turkey near 10 lb to hold the $30 and add a pie. Eight at the table? Wegmans wins the math — under $5.00 a person with the turkey and dessert already in the basket — as long as you grab that turkey by Nov 22. Either way, both beat building the same menu at everyday prices, and both are cook-it-yourself baskets, so save your oven schedule, not just your money.
