A new survey by Category Partners found that household size, income and other factors influence how consumers plan to spend Thanksgiving.
Nearly 50% of respondents indicated they would be preparing a meal at home for themselves and any guests, 30% said they would travel to someone else’s home for a meal prepared there, but a substantial portion of consumers indicated that their Thanksgiving plans don’t include a traditional home-prepared meal.
“We were surprised that for 20% of survey respondents, the traditional home-cooked Thanksgiving meal is not part of holiday,” director of research Cara Ammon said in a news release. “For 9% of individuals, they say they either don’t celebrate Thanksgiving at all or there is no unique holiday meal.
“An additional 11% said that they will either travel to a restaurant or the Thanksgiving meal will be store-bought or catered,” Ammon said.
Household size appears to play a key role in which of those options consumers choose.
“Having children in the home significantly impacts the celebration plans,” Ammon said in the release. “64% of households with children said they plan to celebrate Thanksgiving at home compared to only 41% of households without children. 21% of households without children said they will go to a restaurant or skip Thanksgiving altogether.
“We were also surprised to see that for people living alone, many may stay alone on Thanksgiving,” Ammon said. “Nearly 30% of individuals living by themselves do not experience a traditional Thanksgiving
and say they will eat at a restaurant on Thanksgiving or skip the holiday altogether.”
Category Partners also reported that high-income households were more likely to celebrate the holiday at home with a meal prepared there. Among households reporting income of $200,000 or more, 73% planned to host a Thanksgiving event at home, while only 47% of households reporting income of $50,0000 planned to do the same.
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