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2024 Pre-Thanksgiving Consumer Traffic Trends 

Find out how pre-Thanksgiving behaviors affected industries like retail, dining, travel, and more.

By 
Shira Petrack
December 3, 2024
2024 Pre-Thanksgiving Consumer Traffic Trends 
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Key Takeaways
  • Home improvement, home decor and party supply stores tend to see significant visit spikes on the week before Thanksgiving. 
  • Dining visits begin to rise on Monday before Thanksgiving before peaking on Wednesday. 
  • Auto-related consumer sectors also see a Thanksgiving-driven visit boost – but unlike with other sectors, the auto-related visit spike is limited to the day before the holiday. 

Many of Thanksgiving’s consumer behavior impacts are broadly recognized, from the pre-Thanksgiving Turkey Wednesday peak at grocery stores to the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping bonanza. But diving into consumer foot traffic trends for the week before the holiday reveals some lesser-known ripple effects from many Americans’ favorite national event. So how did Thanksgiving impact retail, dining, and airport visits this year? We analyzed the data to find out. 

Visits to Home Decor & Party Supply Stores Spike  

Many Americans host friends and family for Thanksgiving dinner, leading to the well-recognized spike in pre-Thanksgiving grocery traffic that culminates on Turkey Wednesday. But hosting a proper Thanksgiving dinner requires more than just good food – the space needs to be prepped as well. 

Foot traffic data indicates that many consumers do in fact spend the week before Thanksgiving shopping for decor and other entertainment supplies, driving visit increases at home furnishing stores such as Homesense and at party supply stores such as Party City. And the prospect of guests also seems to motivate consumers to tackle whatever home repair projects they’ve been putting off – visits to home improvement stores, including Home Depot and Lowe’s, also received a significant boost the week before Turkey Day. 

Visits to Furniture & Home Furnishing Stores, Gifts & Craft Stores Over Thanksgiving Week, Compared to Same-Day Average* between 9/1/24-11/21/24 show a surge in visits

Dining Visits Rise 

All the time spent in the kitchen cooking for Thanksgiving may also be contributing to a rise in dining visits on the days leading up to the holiday. Although visits to restaurants, breakfast joints, and fast food places dipped slightly during the weekend before Thanksgiving, foot traffic to major dining segments began climbing on Monday, November 25th before peaking on Turkey Wednesday. 

This increase in dining visits could be due in part to home cooks – and their families – looking to fuel up outside the home as the kitchen gets taken over by Thanksgiving prep. And some Americans who started the Thanksgiving vacation early may choose to spend some quality time going out to eat with their friends and families prior to the big day. Others who are already traveling may also be driving up dining visits by looking for more meals on the go. 

Visits to Dining Categories Over Thanksgiving Week, Compared to Same-Day Average* between 9/1/24-11/21/24 show a peak on wednesday before Thanksgiving

Car Categories’ Visit Boost Limited to Wednesday 

But even as some Americans begin their Thanksgiving travels earlier in the week, most Americans traveling by car seem to wait until Wednesday to head out – and the traffic boost to car-related categories seems to occur much closer to the day itself. Car shops & services and gas stations & convenience stores received a minor bump on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving as some Americans hit the road early or got their car serviced ahead of the long drive back home. But most of the traffic boost to car shops, car washes, and gas stations occurred on Wednesday November 27th – just before Thanksgiving travel. 

Boost to Auto-Related Categories Limited to Day Before Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving’s Foot Traffic Boost 

Thanksgiving’s economic impact is not limited to grocery stores and post-Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping. Analyzing consumer foot traffic data for the week before the holiday reveals the widespread impact that Thanksgiving has on a range of consumer sectors, from car washes to dining segments to home improvement. 

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