Sam’s Club Presents Its 2026 Member’s MarkTM Thanksgiving Meal

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How nearly a year of member feedback and item development created Sam's Club's largest Thanksgiving Meal yet

While you were still eating last year's Thanksgiving leftovers, Sam's Club was already planning this year's Thanksgiving meal.

The result is Sam's Club's biggest Thanksgiving meal yet: 11 Member's Mark™ items for about $160, serving up to 16 people, for less than $10 per person. It includes a charcuterie tray for pre-meal grazing, offers more protein and now has a gravy meticulously developed over multiple rounds of testing.

This all happened after researching holiday trends and listening to Sam's Club member feedback. And the best part? It can be prepared in about two hours.²

What's included in the 2026 Sam's Club Thanksgiving Meal

After nearly a year of testing, tasting and iterating, here's what Sam's Club members will receive when they order the meal:

• Boneless carver ham
• Hickory smoked turkey
• Yukon Gold mashed potatoes
• Turkey gravy
• Green beans with dried cranberries and almonds (x2)
• Macaroni and cheese (x2)
• Sweet corn with garlic butter
• Cranberry crunch salad
• Yeast dinner rolls
• Charcuterie entertainment tray
• 12" pumpkin pies (x2)

Beginning Oct. 28, members can add the full meal to their carts with one click and are able to add or remove items as they like. Altogether, the meal comes in at just under $160 and is designed to serve up to 16 people.

Ashley Peoples, senior director of product development at Sam's Club, said the meal isn't just a strong dollar value. It gives members back something else in scarce supply during the holidays: time.

"If a member purchased ingredients for all 11 items and cooked everything from scratch, we calculated it would take the average person 7-9 hours to prepare this meal based on average household cooking times," she said.³ "Being able to prepare it in about two hours gives our members more time with their friends, family and loved ones."

On top of the two-hour prep time, members can easily order the meal in the app or online by adding all items to their cart with a single click for curbside pickup or delivery. The meal is also shoppable in the club.

Here's how the meal itself came to life.

What members wanted from their Thanksgiving meal

While last year's Thanksgiving meal got an "A" grade in a survey of members, the team at Sam's Club knew they wanted bigger and better.

"Shortly after Thanksgiving, we sent surveys to the Member's Mark Community about their meal experience," Peoples said. "We heard they wanted more protein, a gravy and something to snack on before, during and after the meal."

They also heard that members wanted the chance for leftovers to help stretch the meal into the days after Thanksgiving.

"Members told us they wanted more leftovers," she said. "So, we added more items and increased the amount of several sides so we could stretch value even further for them."

In addition to surveying members, the Sam's Club team cooked and tasted Thanksgiving meals from competitors. They also analyzed data around industry trends. All told, 20-30 team members participated in the testing and analysis.

The team went beyond taste. They followed each competitor's cooking instructions with a typical home kitchen in mind.

"We put ourselves in the shoes of a member with a typical setup, which is one oven and two racks," Peoples said.

That empathetic approach carried into Sam's Club's own meal, where the team thoughtfully designed the preparation across 11 items so the entire meal could be ready in approximately two hours.

"We looked at whether meals were canned, heat-and-serve or scratch-made," Peoples said. "Then we looked at data to help compare serving sizes, meal components and value propositions against our own meal."

How Sam's Club developed and tested the 2026 Thanksgiving Meal

Getting the gravy right took longer than almost anything else.

After hearing that members wanted gravy included in the meal, the Sam's Club team started with a benchmark of chef-prepared gravy.

From there, the team worked with suppliers through at least four rounds of testing, refining ingredients, salt levels and texture until it was just right.

"We went through several iterations before we landed on the right one," Peoples said. "Members wanted a hassle-free, homemade experience and were specific about how it should be seasoned. We made changes every round based on that feedback."

By summer, the team was ready to put the meal in front of real members for testing. In June, they brought nearly 100 members to Dallas for a tasting event, complete with full holiday decor - quite a sight in the heat of a Texas summer.

While the meal itself got high marks overall, the gravy was the standout.

"The testers compared it to gravy made by their grandmothers," Peoples said. "One member joked that she wanted to drink it through a straw." Members' notes led to a few final tweaks, including the desire for an appetizer, which led to the addition of the charcuterie tray with detailed attention to the spice level of the pepper jelly that's included. Overall, the testing confirmed what Sam's Club suspected: Members wanted value but didn't want to give up quality to get it.

And with quality in mind, each item in the Thanksgiving meal meets Sam's Club's Made Without Commitment, which removes more than 40 unwanted ingredients, including artificial colors, from its items.

Giving Thanksgiving hosts time back

For most families, the year between Thanksgivings flies by. The leftovers run out, the seasons change and suddenly, it's Thanksgiving again.

At Sam's Club, that same year moves slowly and with purpose. The team spends it planning, testing and refining, so that when the holiday arrives, members can simply enjoy it.

"This is my third Thanksgiving meal project here at Sam's Club, and I don't think we've ever put this much emphasis on how much time we're giving back to members," Peoples said. "We're helping people spend less time in the kitchen and more time with family. And on a day like Thanksgiving, that's what really matters."

How to order the Sam's Club Thanksgiving Meal

Time saved for members isn't just about time in the kitchen on Thanksgiving. The Sam's Club Thanksgiving meal also helps save valuable time shopping. Starting Oct. 28, members can shop for the meal in-club or online, with the ability to add it to their shopping cart with a single click in the app or on SamsClub.com.

After ordering, members can choose to pick up the meal curbside or even have it delivered. Express delivery brings it to your doorstep in as soon as one hour.⁴

Wine pairings for the Thanksgiving Meal

Curious about what to pair with this year's Thanksgiving meal? Hear what Elliott Schaum, Sam's Club's certified sommelier, recommends for wine pairings.

1. Feeds 16 for under $10 per person based on average weights of food items shown. See SamsClub.com/ThanksgivingMeal for details. Pricing shown is pre-tax and reflects the total price of the complete holiday assortment as shown, purchased in full, divided by 16 guests. Per-person cost is calculated by dividing the total assortment price by 16 and does not represent the price of items purchased individually or à la carte, which are priced separately. The per-person figure is based on average expected product weights and serving yields. Because several items are sold by weight, actual product weights and total price may vary.

Actual cost per person, total price, product weights, availability, portion sizes, and serving yields may vary by club. Substitutions may apply where a listed item is unavailable. Suggested serving yields are estimates and do not imply that every individual will receive a full serving of every listed item. This offer assumes the complete assortment shown. Availability of all items is not guaranteed at every club.

2. Individual oven times may vary.

3. Based on trials and testing performed by the product development team at Sam's Club.

4. Available at participating locations on eligible orders for an additional $10 for Plus members or $22 for Club members. No minimum order size. Delivery is dependent upon product eligibility, inventory availability, available delivery time slots, club hours and delivery location. Order time limits, geographic restrictions, quantity limits and other restrictions may apply. See SamsClub.com/TermsAndConditions for details.