How much to charge for a 20 pound smoked turkey?

[pushok2018]

Are the turkeys cured with nitrite and smoked? Or just smoked?

Good question.... I missed that part - I was talking about brine cured with injections, smoked turkey....

 

[clifish]

Wife just paid $2.79/lb for a 20lb frozen turkey...I was kind of pissed as last week she paid $.99 for a 14lb, she got lazy and just bought the second one when more people were added.

 

[pc farmer]

Whole...a regular just walked in gave me $140 for one when I told him $75:)

Cant go wrong then. They think the price they paid was well worth it.

 

[indaswamp]

Turkey prices are out of whack this year because of Covid shut downs at processors....lowest number of turkeys processed per capita since 1987...so maybe $140 is in the ball park for a smoked bird in N.C. I have no idea.
Turkeys were $0.87/# here today at one of the large grocers. I'm sure that price was a loss leader ahead of T-day. I almost bought one just because...and put it in the freezer. But our freezers are filling up with wild game fast.

 

[indaswamp]

Flip side is that maybe there will be a surplus of birds next year as growers hope to cash in on the high prices......

 

[jcam222]

I think Smokinedge is right with the market raw price x 3. The problem now is that with high market prices most folks are having to narrow their margins to sell. Another person pointed out that the cost of the turkey is a big factor. I just paid $3 / lbs for local fresh turkey whereas I could get in store frozen for < $1 a lbs.

 

[Steve H]

Located outside the metro areas of NC. Lots of New Yorkers moving here -- no offense meant. Well, maybe:)

Watch it bud! Lol!

 

[AndrewYoung]

Man, this is gooooooooooooood! Happy Smoked Turkey Day!!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Markets are what they are. We live fairly close to Telluride (ski resort) our town is the grocery shopping area for those traveling to the resort, or those that live there. Our City Market (Kroger) is the store of choice for them. The store carries the typical Butterball, Jenny O, Perdue poultry products as well as a company called Red Bird, now this company is in northern Colorado and raises free range non GMO, blah, blah, a 4#ish fryer chicken will run 10-11 bucks from them their fresh turkeys are over 2 bucks a pound. Just across from them are butterballs for .48 cents, but both sell equally well.
So I don’t think it’s worth while to smoke a .48 cent a pound turkey for say $30.00, you would have to go off of a standard market price, say $1-1.25 per pound, pricing the smoked bird in the 60-70 dollar range regardless if you bought the bird for .48 cents or $1.00. But you would have wiggle room in there to cut your price to say $50.00 if you wanted to. Now the Red Bird turkey is already priced at $2.00 plus a pound. So a 20# bird is in that $40-45.00 range, that’s $120-ish for a smoked bird, you would have wiggle room here too, but don’t forget the market. If I were selling these birds in Telluride, I wouldn’t hesitate to price them at that $120.00 price point. If they sold too fast, I would raise the price. Locally here in town, I would expect a price point somewhere around $50-60.00 would sell, but if I advertised both the Butterball at $60.00 and the Red Bird at $120.00, I would except to sell more Butterballs, but I would expect to sell some Red Birds as well locally. Understanding your local market is key. And who knows, in Telluride you might sell them for $180.00 everything is market driven.

 

[Nefarious]

Markets are what they are. We live fairly close to Telluride (ski resort) our town is the grocery shopping area for those traveling to the resort, or those that live there. Our City Market (Kroger) is the store of choice for them. The store carries the typical Butterball, Jenny O, Perdue poultry products as well as a company called Red Bird, now this company is in northern Colorado and raises free range non GMO, blah, blah, a 4#ish fryer chicken will run 10-11 bucks from them their fresh turkeys are over 2 bucks a pound. Just across from them are butterballs for .48 cents, but both sell equally well.
So I don’t think it’s worth while to smoke a .48 cent a pound turkey for say $30.00, you would have to go off of a standard market price, say $1-1.25 per pound, pricing the smoked bird in the 60-70 dollar range regardless if you bought the bird for .48 cents or $1.00. But you would have wiggle room in there to cut your price to say $50.00 if you wanted to. Now the Red Bird turkey is already priced at $2.00 plus a pound. So a 20# bird is in that $40-45.00 range, that’s $120-ish for a smoked bird, you would have wiggle room here too, but don’t forget the market. If I were selling these birds in Telluride, I wouldn’t hesitate to price them at that $120.00 price point. If they sold too fast, I would raise the price. Locally here in town, I would expect a price point somewhere around $50-60.00 would sell, but if I advertised both the Butterball at $60.00 and the Red Bird at $120.00, I would except to sell more Butterballs, but I would expect to sell some Red Birds as well locally. Understanding your local market is key. And who knows, in Telluride you might sell them for $180.00 everything is market driven.

We have to remember that the person who pays 49 or 99 cents per pound are way more price conscious then the person who would spend $3 per pound. I would expect to sell way more of the higher priced turkeys then the lower cost ones.