Preparing a Thanksgiving Day meal for family and friends is tough enough, so area grocers are stocking their shelves in order to take a little stress off of your ingredients list.

David Oliver, owner of Dave’s Market in Valley Grande, said the work to prepare for all of their customers’ needs began months in advance.

“We start thinking about Thanksgiving usually at some point in August, and we start getting a lot of this stuff in during the last week of October,” Oliver said.

He said there are shopping trends local consumers tend to follow during the lead-up to the fall feast.

“We see a lot of canned goods and turkeys sold a bit earlier, and the day before Thanksgiving they buy things like brown gravy, rolls, and produce like celery and onions,” Oliver said.

Norman McDonald, market manager at Dave’s Market, said workers in the deli have also been preparing for a holiday rush for a while.

“We have to plan way ahead for Thanksgiving,” McDonald said. “This year we’ve had a lot of orders for turkeys and hams. We even see some smaller families come in and buy steaks. That’s usually for Christmas, but we are seeing some more of that this year.”

McDonald said shoppers have holiday standards for Thanksgiving Day.

“Back here in the meat market, you are going to see things like hams, turkey and we’ll sell a lot of last minute stuff,” McDonald said. “A lot of people will pick up similar things for the football games on Saturday, but they’ll mostly wait until Friday.”

Harrie Pettaway was at Dave’s Wednesday checking off the last ingredients she needed for her Thanksgiving dinner plans.

“I had to stop by today and get some last minute items for my Thanksgiving meal, like some milk, butter, sugar,” Pettaway said. “I’ve got a whole list.”

Oliver said employees would work a full day Wednesday, but then the grocery would be closed for Thanksgiving Day.

“Our employees deserve a day off,” Oliver said.