Day: October 23, 2025

• Walmart, Aldi, and others are offering ready-to-order baskets of Thanksgiving meal supplies.
• Retailers have taken some creative steps to keep prices steady in spite of persistent inflation.
• Business Insider rounded up the menus and how much each one costs per person.

With Thanksgiving five weeks away, retailers are once again stepping in to take some of the guesswork out of hosting.

Walmart, Aldi, and Sam’s Club have each shared this year’s menus of ready-to-order Thanksgiving meal kits. Costco also appears to be in on the trend; one shopper on social media spotted a meal kit available in the fresh food section.

Retailers have taken some creative steps to keep prices steady in spite of persistent inflation, with budget-minded chains aiming to keep the overall basket at or below $40 for a gathering of eight.

Business Insider rounded up several of the menus to see how much each one costs per person.

Sam’s Club — $10

The offering from Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is the most expensive in the group, but also very likely the easiest to put together quickly. The company says it surveyed its Member’s Mark community to design the menu, and nearly two-thirds of respondents said cooking and prep were their biggest turkey day challenges.

This year’s basket costs $100, feeds 10 people, and can be ready in two hours. Curious diners can also try it out in advance at a nearby “Taste of Sam’s” event on November 15.

Here’s what’s included:

• Member’s Mark Smoked Turkey
• Member’s Mark Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes
• Member’s Mark Macaroni and Cheese
• Member’s Mark Yeast Dinner Rolls
• Member’s Mark Pumpkin Pie
• Member’s Mark Green Beans with Cranberries and Sliced Almonds
• Member’s Mark Garlic Herb Corn
• Member’s Mark Harvest Salad
• Member’s Mark Sweet Potato Mash

Walmart — $4

Walmart says this year’s holiday feast is the lowest price per person since it started offering a ready-to-order basket. A big chunk of the savings comes from selling the turkey at less than a dollar a pound, plus a strong representation from the retailer’s own Great Value private label brand.

This year’s offering is available as a one-click order option online and costs $40 for a gathering of 10 people.

Here’s what’s included:

• Butterball Turkey, 13.5 lb. ($0.97/lb. — lowest price since 2019)
• Kinder’s Fried Onions, 4.5 oz.
• Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, 10.5 oz. (1 can)
• Stove Top Turkey Stuffing, Twin Pack 2 x 6 oz.
• Great Value Dinner Rolls, 12 ct.
• Fresh Russet Potatoes, 5 lb.
• Fresh Cranberries, 12 oz.
• Great Value Baby Carrots, 2 lb.
• Great Value Corn, 15 oz. (3 cans)
• Great Value Green Beans, 14.5 oz. (3 cans)
• Great Value Artisan Macaroni & Cheese, 12 oz. (3 boxes)
• Great Value Brown Gravy Mix, 0.87 oz. (2)
• Great Value Pie Crusts
• Great Value Evaporated Milk, 12 fl. oz.
• Great Value 100% Pure Pumpkin, 15 oz.

Aldi — $4

Aldi says it has beaten last year’s price for a basket of 21 total products, including a 14-pound turkey, to feed a gathering of $10. Like Walmart, the cash savings translate into a little more time and energy cooking the meal nearly from scratch.

The low-frills grocer also offers a handy shopping list to help shoppers navigate the aisles and stay within their budgets.

“We believe families shouldn’t have to make trade-offs to feed everyone, especially at Thanksgiving,” Aldi US CCO Scott Patton said in a statement.

Here’s what’s included:

• Whole Turkey (14 lbs)
• French Fried Onions
• Chicken Broth
• Pie Crust
• Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Chicken or Cornbread Stuffing (x2)
• Evaporated Milk
• Whipped Dairy Topping
• Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
• Yellow Onions (3 lbs.)
• Miniature Marshmallows
• Baby Peeled Carrots
• Cut Green Beans (x2)
• Celery
• 100% Pure Canned Pumpkin
• Cranberries
• Shells & Cheese (x2)
• Sweet Potatoes (3 lbs.)
• Brown Gravy Mix (x3)
• Russet Potatoes (10 lbs)

Target — $5

Target told Business Insider that its Thanksgiving basket isn’t available yet, but last year the bullseye brand offered a meal for four that cost $20, which it said could be doubled (or tripled) to meet the occasion.

While the baseline menu is less comprehensive than some competitors’, the company offers additional side dishes, like mac and cheese and pumpkin pie, for less than $5 each.

Last year, Target also offered a free frozen pizza for Circle 360 members, saying Thanksgiving Eve is one of the most popular pizza days of the year, thanks to all the preparation for the big meal.

Here’s what’s included:

• Good & Gather Premium Basted Young Turkey (Frozen) — up to 10 lb.
• Good & Gather Russet Potatoes — 5 lb.
• Del Monte Cut Green Beans — 14.5 oz.
• Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup — 10.5 oz.
• Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce — 14 oz.
• Stove Top Turkey Stuffing Mix — 6 oz.
• Heinz Home Style Roasted Turkey Gravy — 12 oz.

Costco $7.50

Costco doesn’t typically announce its offerings, but one enthusiastic shopper posted a warehouse find on social media showing a “Thanksgiving kit” available in the deli section for $42 that he said is intended for eight people. Costco didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the turkey dinner was available at a warehouse that Business Insider checked in Wisconsin.

Round the kit out with a container of mac and cheese and one of Costco’s legendary 3.5-pound pumpkin pies, and the total comes out to about $60. Availability may vary by location.

Here’s what’s included:

• Thanksgiving kit

  • Turkey
  • Stuffing
  • Gravy
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Green beans
  • Cranberry sauce
• Mac and cheese
• Pumpkin pie

• The US imposed a 241% tariff on Iranian pistachios nearly 40 years ago.
• The tariff allowed early California farmers to gain a foothold in the market.
• America now provides 60% of the world’s pistachios.

When the United States slapped a 241% tariff on Iranian pistachios nearly 40 years ago, it set the stage for one of America’s biggest agricultural success stories.

The trade barrier opened the door for small California farmers to build a new homegrown industry. Today, California supplies more than 60% of the world’s pistachios, a significant portion of the global pistachio market that’s worth an estimated $5.6 billion and projected to grow to over $7 billion by 2030.

The pistachio precedent is an example where tariffs initially worked as intended — protecting an infant industry long enough for it to stand on its own.

However, once the pistachio industry matured, consolidation followed. Only a handful of pistachio processors in California now dominate production.

The same risk looms today for American business owners hoping Trump’s tariffs will level the playing field.

America’s pistachio boom might have never happened

In the mid-20th century, Iran dominated global pistachio production, exporting millions of pounds each year, including to America.

By comparison, America’s “industry in pistachios was almost literally non-existent,” said Bob Keenan, owner of Keenan Farms in California, one of the oldest pistachio processors in the US.

Today, Iran supplies less than a quarter of the global market. That shift and America’s pistachio boom might have never happened, however, if it weren’t for a key moment in history.

In 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage. In response, Washington froze Iranian assets and restricted imports, including pistachios.

Practically overnight, a hole opened in the market for American farmers, and California growers moved quickly to fill it. A lot of like-minded farmers invested their time and resources into building an industry, Keenan told Business Insider’s Olivia Nemec.

In 1980, the Sunshine State produced about 27 million pounds of pistachios. That’s small by today’s standards, but a huge leap from its harvest just four years earlier of 1.5 million pounds.

When the hostages were released in 1981, the embargo was lifted, and Iranian pistachios began flowing back into the US. By then, however, American growers weren’t about to let their foothold in the market slip away.

American growers, including Keenan Farms, accused Iran of dumping, or selling below cost to drive out competition. The US International Trade Commission launched an investigation and found that Iran was selling nuts for less than it cost to grow them, a sign that dumping was indeed at play.

California growers ultimately won their case, and in 1986, the US imposed a 241% anti-dumping tariff on Iranian pistachios. “And that helped our industry grow and become profitable,” said Keenan, whose business expanded from handling and processing nuts on 100 acres in the ’70s to 20,000 today across multiple pistachio growers in the state.

Iran continued exporting to Europe and Asia, but its access to the US was limited. Subsequent sanctions, including the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, prohibited nearly all imports of Iranian goods, which effectively ended any remaining legal trade in pistachios between the two countries.

Drought threatens the pistachio industry, especially small businesses

As America’s pistachio industry matured, small growers laid the groundwork for large companies to scale it. Now, small companies are struggling.

Rebecca Kaser of Avellar-Moore Farms, a small family-run operation in California’s Central Valley, said they’ve had to adapt as droughts worsen and water becomes scarcer. “We’re kind of at the mercy of the elements,” she said.

Pistachio trees thrive in hot, arid climates, but a mature orchard typically needs over a million gallons of water per acre each year in order to produce any nuts for profit, making them vulnerable in times of drought.

Moreover, pistachios are among the most expensive nuts to grow and can cost about $20,000 per acre before a single nut is produced, and trees can take six years to yield a harvest — twice as long as almond trees.

Kaser and other small farmers have struggled under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, which limits pumping groundwater from depleted aquifers.

Kaser says she sees the act’s importance. “It was a piece of legislation that was helping us become better stewards of the land. And that’s at the heart of what farming is.”

However, it has also meant that Avellar-Moore Farms has had to stop planting on some of its land, a process called fallowing, due to insufficient water.

“We fallowed out over 60% of our farm so that we’d be able to have the water in order to irrigate our plantings,” Kaser said. Experts warn that up to 900,000 acres of farmland could go out of production by 2040, disproportionately hurting smaller operations without access to private water banks.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest pistachio producer — The Wonderful Company, owned by billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick — continues to expand thanks to a water bank that the Resnicks own a significant portion of the rights to. The bank relies on surface water, not groundwater, and is less affected by the Groundwater Management Act.

Wonderful Orchards now spans 60,000 acres, roughly four times the size of Manhattan. And its trees produce 20% to 40% more nuts than average with the same amount of water due to selective cloning of its highest-yield crops, Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Orchards, told BI.

That scale gives Wonderful a distinct advantage.

• Danielle Cadet climbed the ladder in journalism, landing one high-powered job after another.
• The 37-year-old eventually had kids and was worried about the impact on her career and identity.
• She found a middle ground — a so-called pause — and launched a podcast about this common dilemma.

This story is based on a conversation with Danielle Cadet, 37, a freelance brand consultant, editorial strategist, and podcast host from Atlanta. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My family is from Haiti, and I’m a first-generation American. I’ve always felt the pressure to succeed and make my parents proud, especially as a young Black woman.

They work in the medical field and were shocked when I said I wanted to be a journalist, but I was determined to make it work. My mentor often told me that I punched above my weight, which helped fuel my natural ambition.

I was always pushing for the next opportunity. My hours were crazy long. I remember working through the night when I was covering major news stories.

Years later, becoming a mother would rock all this.

I never thought having kids would decrease my level of ambition

My work didn’t leave much room for dating. In the back of my mind, I hoped I might meet someone and settle down, but it wasn’t a priority.

I could work holidays and weekends. All I had was myself and my dog. I could jump on a train or a plane without having to check in with my husband and kids first.

Then, in February 2017, I met my person. Jonathan, now 38, checked all the boxes. He was incredibly intelligent — a corporate lawyer — and attractive, and we were on the same level in terms of achievement.

We got married in October 2019 and started trying for a baby. I’d reported so much on Black maternal health — including the higher rates of infertility and risks during pregnancy — that I wanted to know sooner, rather than later, if I was going to have any problems conceiving.

I wasn’t really thinking about how it would affect me professionally. Jonathan had always championed me as a working woman, so after we got pregnant relatively easily, I never thought I’d have to decrease my level of ambition.

In fact, I secured an editorial director position at Netflix in October 2020, while seven months pregnant. Our first daughter, Lenox, was born that December, and I was fortunate enough to take eight months of paid maternity leave.

Motherhood rocked my world

There was the option to take a whole year off, but I decided to go back to Netflix in August 2021 and work from home because of the ongoing pandemic.

Netflix is based in Los Angeles, and we lived in Atlanta. Conditions under COVID had begun to improve, and there were conversations about moving to the West Coast because of the return to the office trend.

The old Danielle — the carefree singleton with no ties — wouldn’t have batted an eyelash about relocating, but this time was different. I’d have to leave behind my extended family, who helped with Lenox. We had no childcare lined up in LA, and Jonathan and I were reticent about moving.

In the end, I wound up traveling to California to meet with my team instead of fully relocating. However, that didn’t stop me from struggling with maintaining a work-life balance.

Motherhood had rocked my world, and I had an identity crisis. I’d be nursing Lenox while frantically writing emails. I worked West Coast hours in Atlanta, so I’d find myself in meetings way after 8 p.m. People would be talking in circles, and I’d think, “This isn’t important. Who cares? I just want to put my daughter to bed.”

My two words collided in a really intense way. Now that I was a mother with all the responsibilities that came with it, could I continue to be a high-flying executive?

Still, I was determined to achieve my ultimate goal of reaching the editor in chief level. I became executive editor and vice president of communications at Essence Communications. I spoke on panels, interviewed high-profile celebrities, and became the face of the brand.

The 20-something Danielle would not have recognized her older self as a mom

That shifted when we decided to try for another baby. Yes, I had my dream job, but it was draining me. The desire to have another kid put it into perspective. It felt unsustainable, both physically and emotionally. It wasn’t the kind of environment where I could give birth again and still feel good about my ability to grow in corporate America.

I was in denial for months, but I finally concluded that I needed to take a step back — a pause. I left Essence in June 2023, and we found out we were expecting in August. It was pretty quick, and I think it had a lot to do with not being stressed or on a plane all the time. I was able to live in a way I’d never been before.

Emerson was born in March 2024, and life was very different. The 20-something Danielle would not have recognized the Danielle who was changing diapers, rocking babies, and making dinners for her family. It was a complete 180.

Still, it wasn’t straightforward. I’d take a nap with the baby and take in that beautiful newborn scent, but I had unresolved questions in my head. “Who the hell are you, if you are doing something for another person as soon as you open your eyes?” I thought.

Those questions led me to the concept of the pause button. I didn’t have to press stop; I could take some time to recalibrate before pressing the start button on my career again.

I’ve taken the idea further by launching a podcast, “Pregnant Pause,” in July 2025. It’s aimed at Black women at the intersection of ambition and motherhood, exploring all the factors that go into deciding to — or deciding not to — start a family.

My podcast talks to women navigating family and professional planning

My career had been my North Star for decades. Then it evolved into being a mom. But it will inevitably pivot in the future.

I’m motivated by showing my daughters that they can charter their lives and control their own story. They don’t have to fit inside a prescription for success written by someone else.

I hope my girls will look at me and think, “Mom took this really scary leap of faith, and we’re proud.”