American shoppers are more likely to purchase a larger turkey for this year's Thanksgiving festivities. Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to discuss consumer shopping trends as more people will opt toward larger gatherings in the post-pandemic era.

"We're expecting an average of about nine people around a table this year, and those numbers are certainly up," Jandrain says. "With COVID, people weren't able to get together like they normally would in the past, so these are back to pre-pandemic numbers, which is great."

Click here to watch the full interview on the Yahoo Finance YouTube page or you can watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live here.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: All right, well, we're less than a week to Thanksgiving, so let's talk some turkey.

Thanks to easing pricing pressures here, the price of your turkey is dropping this year.

It's going to cost significantly less.

Now, according to Wells Fargo, turkey prices are down about 16% from a year ago.

And speaking of turkey, Butterball, the company that produces the poultry products, releasing its Thanksgiving report for the year, finding that 79% of consumers are expected to purchase a whole turkey.

And 81% of people are set to buy the same size or larger turkey than last year.

We want to bring in Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain to talk a little bit more about some of the trends that you're seeing right now and also maybe give us some tips on some of the people-- for some of the people who are cooking their turkeys this year.

But Jay, what are you seeing in terms of demand and pricing, how it compares to last year?

JAY JANDRAIN: Well, demand is strong, which is great.

We're seeing certainly a return to bigger celebrations talking to our consumers pre holiday.

We know that they're happy to get back out and celebrate this Thanksgiving with friends and family, like they haven't maybe done so in the last couple of years.

So it's great to see that people are getting, kind of, back to normal again and looking for bigger gatherings, which means they're going to be probably looking for a little bit bigger turkey.

Most of the folks that we've talked to say that they're going to buy the same or larger turkey this year as they did last year, which makes sense because of bigger gatherings.

And demand is strong.

And fortunately, there's a great supply out there, so there's plenty of turkey for everybody for this Thanksgiving.

BRAD SMITH: I want to ask you about that supply.

I mean, we are on pace to see the hottest year on record according to some of the climatologists that we've spoken with, some of the scientists out there.

And the reason why I bring that up is because this can directly impact the turkey industry.

And for Butterball, how have you been able to navigate that and ensure that there are turkeys that, I guess grimly, make it to the Thanksgiving table?

JAY JANDRAIN: Well, we start planning the next holiday right after this one is done.

So we've got a year of time that we're really building that inventory and making sure that we've got plenty of supply in the freezer.

And then of course, we produce a fresh product just shortly before Thanksgiving.

But if there are little bumps in the road, most of the time there's opportunity to, kind of, work those through without any challenges.

But a lot of planning and effort goes into that certainly with our company and with the rest of the industry to make sure that we've got enough product on the table for consumers.

SEANA SMITH: Jay, have you noticed any, sort of, shift in terms of how people are shopping, what they're spending on, how many people they're going to have gathered around their Thanksgiving table this year?

JAY JANDRAIN: Yeah, we're expecting about nine-- average about nine people around the table this year.

And those numbers are certainly up.

With COVID people weren't able to get together like they normally would in the past.

So these are really, kind of, back to pre-pandemic numbers, which is great.

As far as the consumer right now, certainly inflation is top of mind and that's when we talk to these customers, our consumers.

They're telling us that and that's certainly something they're paying attention to.

The great news really is, as you mentioned, prices are down this year, which is good to see, helps consumer out certainly.

And it's also really a very economical meal.

Because of the heavy feature activity, the heavy sales prices that retailers are putting the product out to consumers at, it really makes it a very cost-effective meal when you look in the grand scheme of things.

And it certainly helps in this time when people are really having to watch their dollars.