THANKSGIVING BY THE NUMBERS

Who’s hungry? I know I‘m not . . . . After two family dinners, approximately six food comas (officially known as “postprandial sleep,” according to a study of fruit flies who overate), countless hours of  football, and a fridge full of leftovers that seems like it will keep me fed all the way to Christmas, another Thanksgiving holiday is in the books. After a long weekend traditionally filled with family, friends, revelry, giving thanks, eating, eating and more eating, we wouldn’t typically take the time to consider just how massive the Thanksgiving operation in the United States really is. So, as I waddled to work a couple of days ago, on a warmer than usual Monday morning, I decided to do just that. 

For your post-Thanksgiving reading pleasure, and possibly to spur some great entrepreneurial idea that has been hiding in the recesses of your brain, here are the numbers behind America’s second most favorite holiday:

• 151 million: The number of people who said they shopped in stores or online over last year’s Thanksgiving weekend. On average, a Thanksgiving shopper spends $299.56, with the 25- to 34-year-old segment topping the charts at a robust $425.08 per person. 
• 48.7 million – The number of travelers anticipated during last week’s Thanksgiving holiday, the largest cohort since 2007.
• 46 million: The estimated number of turkeys killed annually for Thanksgiving, which retail at approximately $22.74 each (if you do the math, that’s more than a billion dollars).
• <100,000: The number of questions the “professionally trained” turkey experts on Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line answer in anticipation of the holiday festivities. Not to worry millennial generation, Butterball has “embraced digital” and now offers a live chat platform on its website to answer all your turkey questions.
• 4,500: The average number of calories an American will consume at a traditional Thanksgiving feast, according to the Calories Control Council. To put this in prospective, that is 2 1/4 times the recommended daily calorie intake.
• 1621: The year of the first Thanksgiving, a three-day feast during which the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians came together for a series of meals—incidentally they dined on seafood, not turkey.  
• 5: The number of days required to thaw a frozen 16-pound bird in the refrigerator, according to the USDA.

Just writing these statistics made me feel full again. I think I will go lay down for some postprandial sleep. 

HAPPY (belated) THANKSGIVING ALL!