Last-minute Thanksgiving shopping is underway. Grocery stores were packed Wednesday evening as people bought everything they needed for Thanksgiving dinner.
Bernice Kovac and her daughter, Teresa, have been preparing for weeks. Teresa Kovac said she started accumulating her ingredients slowly so she didn't have to buy it all at once. On Wednesday, they were at the Hy-Vee store in Mission, Kan., for their final items.
"We are here to get the fresh vegetables, the lettuce, the tomato," said Teresa Kovac. "Everything fresh for tomorrow, extra milk for the mashed potatoes."
Teresa Kovac plans to wake up at 4 a.m. Thanksgiving Day to get started on the family's 24-pound turkey. She said she makes two batches of everything so there will be plenty of leftovers.
Guy Steiner is the store manager at Consentino's Price Chopper at 103rd and State Line in Kansas City, Mo. He said this has been a typical year for his store leading up to Thanksgiving. But one big difference is the significant increase he has seen in the number of people ordering prepared Thanksgiving meals.
"Sometimes people are surprised by company they didn't know were coming and they had to add to their meal," he said. "Or they were going to go somewhere else or go out."
The kitchen staff began putting these meals together on Monday and the deli manager said they will keep on cooking and prepping up until Thanksgiving Day.
"A lot less prep time," said Steiner. "People are time-starved and some of them are kitchen-challenged. Time-starved and kitchen-challenged nowadays, so that really helps."
The store manager at Hy-Vee in Mission, Kan., told 41 Action News he has seen a 30 percent increase from last Thanksgiving in people ordering prepared meals.
Consentino's Price Chopper is open overnight until 1 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.
