Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and Americans are getting ready for plenty of turkey, football, and time spent with loved ones this year. As a market research facility, we can’t help but do a little research on Thanksgiving in anticipation of the big day. Keep in mind that as you prepare for your yearly trip to a relative’s house, your turkey may be making a much longer trip than you:
- The average long-distance Thanksgiving trip is 214 miles, and more than 40 million families will be travelling to visit loved ones this year. Your turkey may travel about 1,500 miles before it reaches your plate. Pretty impressive for a bird that can’t fly!
- 736 million pounds of turkey were consumed on Thanksgiving 2011 in the U.S. This is about 46 million birds, which is roughly twice the number of turkeys consumed on Christmas.
- If you’re on a diet, you may want to skip this statistic. The total caloric intake of an entire Thanksgiving meal is about 4,500 calories. Based on the average intake of 2,000 calories per day, Thanksgiving is worth two days of caloric intake, plus breakfast on the third day. There’s a reason they’re called seconds, it’s because you should think twice before you eat them!
- Somehow, 226 million people manage to wake up early on Black Friday to go shopping for deals on everything from electronics to furniture. In 2011, the average shopper spent almost $400, putting total Black Friday spending at a whopping $52 billion.
- Thanksgiving is coming up on its 400th anniversary. The first celebration was in 1621 at the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts. 53 colonists and 90 members of the Wampanoag tribe were present at the inaugural event.
Observation Baltimore has conducted a number of qualitative studies, some of which involve the food served on Thanksgiving, at our Baltimore research facility. If you are interested in participating in one of these studies, please do the following:
- Join our mailing list by signing up at www.observationbaltimore.com/getpaid
- Like us on Facebook – we post select studies on Facebook with assigned call-in numbers – atwww.facebook.com/observationbaltimore
- Call us at 410-332-0400 for more info.
- Email us at info@obaltimore.com for more info or to connect.
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