Two store-bought Thanksgiving dinners

I've reserved my sleek heritage turkey and I'm planning a simple menu at home for Thanksgiving, but you can avoid all the work by buying complete dinners at several North Jersey markets.

Comparing offerings by Fairway Market in Paramus and Maywood's Marketplace, you'd get a far better deal and can feed more people with the dinner from the mid-size specialty market in bustling Maywood.




Fairway is preparing dinner for six at $119 and dinner for 12 at $199. For six, the Maplecrest turkey is 10-12 pounds and appears to be raised conventionally with antibiotics. Also, Fairway doesn't say whether the bird's feed was vegetarian. You might be able to substitute a drug-free, free-roaming Murray's turkey or an organic bird, at higher cost.


Maywood's Marketplace says its dinner will feed 12 people for $99.99 or $129.99, if you want fruit salad and steamed veggies. The turkey weighs 18 pounds and appears to be raised conventionally.

Dinners from both markets include the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy and one (Fairway) or two pies. Fairway also gives you soup, sweet potatoes and dinner rolls.

The Fairway flier that came with today's paper is heralding a Thanksgiving stock-up sale Nov. 20-26 in Parmaus "priced like it's 1999 -- woo-hoo."

Fairway Market, Fashion Center Mall, Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-267-9700. 
 www.fairwaymarket.com


Maywood's Marketplace, 78 W. Pleasant Ave., Mayroood; 201-843-8361. 
www.wmarketnyc.com