The writer priced today's Thanksgiving staples at United Supermarkets and set them against what the average West Texan paid 100 years ago. A 12- to 24-pound turkey now runs about $40. Cranberries cost about $2.56 a pound, up from roughly a dime.
Dressing and sides tell the same story. Bread for homemade dressing averaged 9 cents a loaf in 1926. A 10-pound bag of potatoes ran roughly $0.66, while a 10-pound bag of russets at United costs about $5.00 now. Eggs went for around 34 cents a carton for the average family, and a dozen non-organic eggs today cost about $1.73.
The turkey gap looks smaller than the rest, and the writer says there's a reason. Families in 1926 weren't cooking 24-pound birds the way people do now. Today's bigger bird helps explain the $40 price tag, so the per-pound number only tells part of the story.
That same loaf of bread now runs between $2.50 and $4.00, the steepest climb on the list.