NEW YORK — According to new data from Nielsen, turkey might have some competition for favorite meat at the dinner table on Thanksgiving.
The market firm analyzed Thanksgiving trends for four weeks between Thanksgiving 2014 and Thanksgiving 2018. Nielsen looked at beef steaks, beef roasts and the traditional whole turkey.
For beef steaks, the dollar shares of total fresh meat increased from 12.7 percent to 14.7 percent from 2014 to 2018. Under dollar sales, Nielsen observed an increase of 13.4 percent during the time period.
During the Thanksgiving time period of 2014 to 2018, beef roasts also increased its dollar share from 7.2 percent to 7.9 percent. Dollar sales increased by 6.9 percent.
Finally, the whole turkey took a hit, decreasing from 10.8 percent to 9.7 percent from Thanksgiving 2014 to Thanksgiving 2018. An 11.9 percent decrease in dollar sales also occurred.
Nielsen also added that in the last year from Oct. 27, 2018 to Oct. 26, 2019, whole turkey sales decreased by 9.1 percent from $617,505,401 to $561,189,602.
The firm did mention an 8 percent increase in dollar sales for the past year on plant-based meat alternatives.