KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With hours to go before Thanksgiving, Wednesday brought a rush to grocery stores and bakeries as people around the metro scrambled to get ready for the holiday.
At Ashleigh’s Bake Shop in Westport, lines of people waited to pick up pies throughout the day while staff prepared orders.
“We have one oven, so you can imagine things get pretty crowded,” owner Ashleigh Luna. “This time of year, you can feel the energy. Everyone is just out shopping for the holidays and getting ready for Thanksgiving.”
Luna told 41 Action News that the shop sold around 500 pies this week alone.
Of all varieties, the cranberry crumble pie was most popular amongst customers.
“I feel like half the battle is just trying to figure out where all the pies are once you’re ready to start bagging up the orders,” said Luna, with the white pie boxes in various piles around the store.
At other businesses, like McGonigle’s Market off Ward Parkway, staff were assigned to direct traffic in the parking lot to help with crowds.
Special signs also were put up inside the longtime local grocery store to help people correctly navigate to the front of the lines.
“This morning, when we opened the door, they were lined from the front door back up the aisle and around to the meat counter,” owner Mike McGonigle said. “We had a very big crowd when we opened the doors, and it stayed that way through the day.”
McGonigle estimated his business sold around 65,000 pounds of turkey this year.
For the team at the store, Thanksgiving week marks a special time.
“We’ve been taking orders for the last five or six weeks getting ready for these three days,” he said. “November and December are our two busiest months.”
With the holiday season now in full swing, McGonigle said the metro was ready to celebrate.
“Everybody wants to be together tomorrow with family and they want to have good food around them,” he said.
