SHOPPERS BUSY BUYING THEIR BIRDS

At T minus three days until Thanksgiving, shoppers were out in full force this weekend buying their birds.

"I buy the biggest turkey I can find," said Paula Suzuki. "And I always shop for the bargains."

Suzuki and other Cape Girardeau shoppers won't have much difficulty finding bargains this holiday season. Large-scale grocers throughout town have slashed prices and are offering competitive rebates on turkeys.

All but one of the major grocers in Cape are offering graduated discounts on turkeys with a $50 or $75 additional purchase. Most are offering a free turkey (any size) with the purchase of $100 worth of fixings.

"We're just getting started now," said Jim D'Amour, store manager of Shop N' Save. He said that sales are pretty heavy the week before Thanksgiving, but taper off about Wednesday.

"People have got to have time to thaw the turkeys before Thanksgiving," D'Amour said. "But some people do buy their turkeys on Thanksgiving; I don't know how they get them thawed."

Maddie Swanner was planning ahead. She bought a 14-pound turkey last week for 27 cents a pound with an additional $50 purchase.

"I try to take advantage of the sales, but I'm not going to buy

things I don't need just to get a turkey," Swanner said.

Wilson and Donna Heise are going to wait a couple days to buy their Thanksgiving bird. "I don't have anywhere to put it," Donna said.

The Heise's said they don't usually take advantage of the store discounts when they buy their turkey. "We get it when we get it," said Wilson. "And we generally wait until the last minute."

Drenna Overby will feed six adults and three kids on Thanksgiving with a turkey that cost her $3.50, with $50 of other necessities.

"I think it's a pretty good deal," Overby said. "But turkey isn't real expensive in the first place."

Store managers said that they're spending more this year to stock their turkeys than last year, but are trying to pass on last year's savings to their customers.

"The cost to us is higher this year," said Dennis Marchi, manager of Schnucks. "But we have to stay competitive."

Major retail competition is what keeps prices low - on everything. The six large scale grocery stores in the area keep prices low and run weekly sales to draw Cape residents to their aisles.

"We try to match everyone else's prices," said Terry Godwin, manager of the Wal-Mart Supercenter. "And we stock up on everything that goes with turkey; it's our busiest time of the year."

Most turkey-buyers have two basic choices when it comes to their birds: fresh or frozen.

"We've got a few fresh ones, but most people today buy the frozen turkeys," said Jim Sturm, store manager of National's Del Farm grocery stores.

Just because a bird is frozen doesn't necessarily mean that it's not fresh. Many turkeys are rapidly frozen at sub-zero temperatures, to prevent the meat from drying.

Fresh turkey also can cost 25-75 cents more per pound than its frozen counterpart.

The Associated Press reported that the average Thanksgiving meal will cost the consumer about $2.64 per person this year, a nickel more than last year.

That amount was based on a hypothetical meal of turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, peas, rolls, cranberries, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, a relish dish, milk and coffee.

Americans are also consuming more turkey than ever before. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 12.7 billion pounds of turkey will be consumed in the last quarter of this year.