On November 2, 2026, Amazon put a $25 price on a Thanksgiving meal built around an 8 lb Butterball frozen turkey, with free Same-Day Delivery on orders of $25 or more in the more than 2,300 US cities and towns where it delivers fresh groceries. The offer, distributed through Business Wire at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, runs until November 26, Thanksgiving Day itself, "while supplies last". Alongside it, Amazon set a frozen turkey price of $0.79 per pound for the whole of November, a fresh turkey price of $0.99 per pound from November 14, and a schedule of grocery, household and fuel discounts that stretches to January 29, 2027.

In Short

Amazon is selling a box of Thanksgiving food, a turkey plus ingredients for side dishes and a dessert, for $25, and in about 2,300 US towns it can arrive the same day it is ordered. It matters to the food brands inside the box and to rival grocers such as Walmart, which is selling its own $35 holiday basket, because groceries are the part of Amazon's store that the company says is growing fastest. The price holds until November 26 or until stock runs out, but Amazon does not say how many people the meal feeds or whether shoppers without Prime pay for delivery.

What the $25 buys

The meal is a list of 15 product lines, or 19 units once the doubled items are counted. "The $25 Thanksgiving meal features familiar favorites from brands customers know and value," according to Amazon.

Eight of the lines carry national brands. They are an 8 lb Butterball frozen turkey, a 14 oz can of Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce, two 0.87 oz packets of McCormick turkey gravy mix, two 7.25 oz units of Kraft Mac & Cheese, 6 oz of Stove Top turkey stuffing, 10.5 oz of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, 2.8 oz of French's Crispy Fried Onions and 12 fl oz of Nestlé Carnation Evaporated Milk.

The other seven lines come from Amazon Grocery, the company's private brand: 5 lb of russet potatoes, two 15.25 oz cans of whole kernel corn, 16 oz of whole carrots, two 14.5 oz cans of cut green beans, eight crescent rolls weighing 8 oz in total, two pie crusts weighing 15 oz and 15 oz of organic pumpkin puree.

So national brands account for 10 units and the private label for nine. Two of the branded lines, Kraft Mac & Cheese and Stove Top, are Kraft Heinz products, and two more, the gravy mix and French's onions, belong to McCormick. That split matters to anyone who follows store brands. In January, PPC Land reported that Kraft Mac & Cheese's share of its US category had fallen to 39% from 45% in 2022, as some buyers moved to cheaper store brands. In Amazon's box, Kraft and Amazon's own label sit side by side.

Amazon does not break down the $25. Nor does it say whether the turkey in the box is valued at the promotional $0.79 per pound. If it were, the bird would account for $6.32, leaving $18.68 for the other 14 lines - PPC Land's arithmetic, not Amazon's.

The list describes ingredients rather than a finished meal. Several items that standard preparations of these dishes call for, among them butter, eggs, sugar and spices, are absent. Amazon frames the offer around adding such items to the same order. "Customers love the convenience of getting everything they need for the holidays delivered so they can come together with family and friends. Amazon makes it even easier for customers to put a delicious meal on the table," said Jason Buechel, Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores and Chief Executive Officer at Whole Foods Market. "With Amazon, customers can get everything they need at everyday low prices - from the turkey to the sides to the serving essentials - all in one cart, delivered to their door within hours."

Amazon also gives no serving count. Walmart, by contrast, says its holiday basket feeds 10.

The November price calendar

The meal sits inside a wider schedule of time-limited prices. According to Amazon, the holiday deals are:

  • Frozen turkey at $0.79 per pound from November 1 through November 26
  • Fresh turkey at $0.99 per pound from November 14 through November 26
  • Thanksgiving staples under $4 from November 1 through November 26
  • 40% off charcuterie and party snacks from November 2 through November 14
  • 40% off pre-made sides from November 15 through November 26

Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, so every turkey, staples and sides offer ends on the holiday itself. An 8 lb fresh bird at the $0.99 rate would cost $7.92, against $6.32 frozen.

A second set of discounts targets what Amazon calls "entertaining essentials". Select Hefty compostable plates, utensils and cups are 20% off from November 14 through November 19. More than 300 McCormick & Company products, described as meal essentials and baking supplies, carry 20% to 25% off from November 19 through November 30. And select Ziploc food storage containers and bags, pitched "to prep for leftovers", are 20% off from November 26 through November 30.

McCormick therefore appears three times in the announcement: as the gravy in the box, as the owner of French's, and as the subject of its own discount. The release does not say whether any of the brands contribute to the price of the meal, a form of trade promotion common in grocery, or whether Amazon carries the cost itself.

Fuel completes the list. Prime members save $0.10 per gallon year-round at more than 7,500 bp, Amoco and participating ampm and Thorntons locations, according to Amazon. Through January 29, 2027, they can save $0.20 per gallon on one fuel purchase every Friday. Counting from November 6, that covers 13 Fridays.

Delivery and the $25 line

The meal's price matches the delivery threshold. Amazon's opening paragraph says the meal arrives "with free Same-Day Delivery on orders of $25 or more". Amazon's description of Prime benefits in the same release words it slightly differently, as "free Same-Day Delivery on grocery orders over $25". An order of exactly $25 meets the first wording but not the second.

The terms behind that free shipping threshold have been public since the network launched. When Amazon extended same-day delivery to perishable groceries in more than 1,000 US cities in August 2025, Prime members paid nothing on orders over $25 in most cities and $2.99 below that, while non-members paid $12.99 regardless of order size. The same terms applied when the service reached more than 2,300 cities and towns in December 2025. The November 2 announcement does not restate them. Does a shopper without Prime receive the $25 meal with free delivery? The release does not say.

The city count has not moved in the meantime. Amazon's target in August 2025 was more than 2,300 locations by the end of that year. It reported reaching that figure in December 2025, repeated it in August 2026 and repeated it again on November 2. Expansion over the past 11 months, if there has been any, does not show up in the number.

Faster options sit on top. Prime members get discounts on one-hour and two-hour delivery from Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, one-hour and three-hour delivery on more than 90,000 items in select cities, and, where available, delivery in about 30 minutes or less through Amazon Now. Amazon launched that service in May 2026 at $3.99 per order for Prime members and $13.99 for everyone else, Amazon's entry into quick commerce. By the time of Amazon's third-quarter results, it was available in more than 450 towns and cities.

What Amazon says about its grocery business

Most of the release is about grocery rather than the holiday. Amazon says it has added more than 6,000 items to its same-day service in the past six months, across fresh produce and pantry staples. The range now runs from 365 by Whole Foods Market and Amazon Grocery to national brands including Dove, Pillsbury and Birds Eye, plus "hundreds of new brands". Bananas, grapes, blueberries, eggs and chicken are among the fastest-selling items, according to Amazon.

One figure is new. "Last quarter, fresh groceries made up all 10 top best sellers on Same Day Delivery," the release states. It is not directly comparable with earlier figures. In December 2025, Amazon said nine of its top ten most-ordered items were perishables. In August 2026, it said fresh groceries held six of the top 20 best-seller slots across all of Amazon.com. Each figure measures a different list.

Other claims repeat earlier ones. Amazon's same-day fulfillment centers stock "tens of thousands" of grocery and household items, "four times that of a typical grocery store's total selection", the same comparison it made in August. And the release again describes Amazon as "Now the second-largest grocer in the U.S." without saying what is measured, whether sales, orders or units, or who measured it. PPC Land noted the same absence of a source when the claim appeared in August.

Private brands get their own figure. Amazon Grocery and Amazon Saver together offer more than 1,200 products, "with the vast majority priced under $5", according to the company. In December 2025, Amazon gave a count of more than 1,000 products for Amazon Grocery alone. Because the new figure combines two brands, it does not show how much either has grown.

Eligible perishables carry Amazon's Freshness Guarantee badge, which comes with "a promise: if a customer is not satisfied, Amazon makes it right". The release does not explain what form that takes.

The scale behind these claims appeared in Amazon's third-quarter results. Amazon said on October 29 that fresh groceries and everyday essentials were growing about three times faster than the rest of its store and accounted for about half of all units sold in the third quarter.

The savings figures

Amazon leans heavily on price claims. It says it offers "the lowest prices every day that meet or beat other retailers" across hundreds of millions of products in more than 35 categories. The release does not set out how that comparison is made. In July, Amazon said its prices were 14% below those of major US retailers across more than 10,000 identical products, and that customers had saved more than $50 billion on deals and coupons worldwide in 2025.

The November 2 version is narrower. Customers "saved an average of over $230 on groceries, household essentials, and other products last year", according to Amazon, through Subscribe & Save at up to 15% off, coupons, and "deals with validated savings". The release does not say what population the average covers, nor how a saving is validated. Both questions bear on the reference price, the figure a discount is measured against. Shoppers are less trusting of those figures than a year ago: Simon-Kucher found in October that 22% of US consumers said advertised discounts fully reflect true savings, down from 46% in 2025.

The Prime figures are partly familiar. According to Amazon, US customers avoided more than 4 billion store trips last year and saved more than $11 billion in fuel costs through Amazon delivery, while Prime members on average saved more than $650 on delivery fees and fuel, 64 shopping trips and 55 hours. The 64 trips and 55 hours were first published in February, when Amazon based the time estimate on 51 minutes per order and put average US Prime delivery savings at $550. The dollar figure now combines delivery fees with fuel, and the release does not show the split.

Lower-income households get a separate tier. Qualifying government-assistance recipients and income-verified customers can save 15% to 20% on select groceries and everyday essentials through Amazon Access, and can buy Prime at a discount through Prime Access. Standard Prime costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year. In April 2024, Amazon introduced a $4.99 monthly grocery delivery subscription for EBT users that did not require Prime.

Walmart's $35 basket

Amazon is not alone with a priced holiday meal. On October 28, Walmart announced a $35 Holiday Meal Basket of 26 items that it says feeds 10 people, with the same items costing 12% less than a year earlier. Walmart's basket runs through December 24, almost a month longer than Amazon's.

The two offers do not line up neatly. Walmart counts 26 items and states a serving size; Amazon lists 19 units and does not. Pack sizes differ, and neither company publishes a per-item price. A per-person or per-item comparison would rest on assumptions that neither release supports.

Both offers address the same pressure. In Walmart's holiday trend report, published the same day as its basket, 43.8% of respondents from its own customer panel named affording the holidays as their top stressor, and 33.1% said they planned to spend more on food and holiday meals. Simon-Kucher put the average US household's holiday budget at $1,018, 5.5% below last year.

Why this matters for marketers

Groceries are bought more often than almost anything else a retailer sells, and frequency is what a retail media network sells. Every extra grocery visit to Amazon is another set of search results, product pages and checkout screens where brands can buy placement. That matters more after a quarter in which Amazon's advertising revenue grew 10.9% to $19.6 billion, down from 26% growth in the second quarter, largely because Prime Day moved to June. Amazon guided to advertising growth in the high teens for the fourth quarter.

For the eight brands in the box, the meal is a prominent holiday placement. Whether that placement was bought, negotiated or simply chosen by Amazon is not disclosed. The remaining seven lines, covering the potatoes, vegetables, rolls and the base of the dessert, carry Amazon's own label.

The competitive field is moving at the same time. DoorDash agreed on October 29 to buy Instacart for about $17 billion, in a deal expected to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028. DoorDash already led US grocery and retail order volume among third-party marketplaces in 2025, according to YipitData. A combined company would face Amazon and Walmart across grocery delivery and grocery advertising alike.

The holiday operation behind the offer is also larger this year. Amazon said on October 20 that it would hire more than 300,000 people for its US operations network this season, against press reports of up to 250,000 a year earlier.

What the announcement leaves open is the economics. It gives no stock levels behind "while supplies last", no serving count, no price split, no delivery terms for non-members and no basis for the "second-largest grocer" claim. Those details would show whether a $25 meal is a promotion to win a holiday basket or a measure of what Amazon's grocery network can now deliver at that price.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon, through its Amazon Grocery business, with a quote from Jason Buechel, Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores and Chief Executive Officer at Whole Foods Market. The meal includes products from Butterball, Ocean Spray, McCormick, Kraft, Stove Top, Campbell's, French's and Nestlé Carnation alongside Amazon Grocery private-brand items.

What: A $25 Thanksgiving meal of 15 product lines (19 units), including an 8 lb frozen turkey, with free Same-Day Delivery on orders of $25 or more, plus turkey at $0.79 per pound frozen and $0.99 fresh, category discounts through November 30 and Prime fuel savings through January 29, 2027. Amazon gives no serving count, price split or delivery terms for non-Prime shoppers.

When: Announced November 2, 2026; the meal is available through November 26, 2026, while supplies last.

Where: The more than 2,300 US cities and towns where Amazon offers fresh groceries with Same-Day Delivery, through Amazon.com/ThanksgivingMeal or a search for "$25 Thanksgiving Meal" in the Amazon app or website.

Why: Groceries and everyday essentials are growing about three times faster than the rest of Amazon's store and made up about half of units sold in the third quarter. A priced holiday meal competes directly with Walmart's $35 basket and gives Amazon more grocery visits, which feed its advertising business at a time when ad growth has slowed and DoorDash is moving to buy Instacart.