Gary & Leo's turkey dinners sold quickly amid pandemic

Gary & Leo’s sold individualized turkey dinners this year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and they were successful enough that it may sell them again next year even after the pandemic is gone.

Store Manager Tracy Job said the individual meals, which were only available Thanksgiving day and the day before, were sold out by 11 a.m. on the holiday.

Job said the deli was able to make about 120 of them and they went fast.

In an interview last Tuesday Job said the idea to offer turkey dinners came about in the wake of the yearly Havre Thanksgiving Community Dinner’s cancelation.

Job said the cancelation was understandable given the pandemic, but was still sad to see it go.

He said he hopes the dinner will be able to take place next year as normal, especially given the need it fills.

“I certainly hope the community dinner is a go next year,” he said. “It’s a great event. We participate in it every year because, frankly, we know that there is a need in our community for it.”

However, he said, despite the event’s presumed return next year it’s likely that Gary & Leo’s would offer the individual turkey dinners again next year.

Job said it’s not a definite, but given it’s popularity, it seems like a market exists for them even if it’s likely to decrease when the pandemic ceases.

“I believe there are a lot of people who would just like to buy a fresh turkey dinner, go home and eat it,” he said. “I believe there’s a need there. Would we sell as many? Probably not, but I think there’s enough opportunity there that we’d bring them back.”

He said the more traditional family dinners Gary & Leo’s sells this time of year also sold extremely well.

“There were about about twice as many as we sold last year,” Job said, “so there was a pretty good demand.”

He said it’s likely a safe assumption that COVID-19 had a lot to do with the dramatic increase in demand for the family dinners, but there is no way to know for sure.

Job said this dramatic increase in demand was handled admirably by the deli workers at Gary & Leo’s, who managed to work it into normal day’s activities so no one needed to work overtime.

“The team in the deli did an outstanding job accommodating those dinners along with the work they do every day,” he said. “We’re really proud of them.”

Another unusual element of Gary & Leo’s Thanksgiving this year was an influx of people who called trying to donate a turkey dinner to a family in need.

Job said the store didn’t really have a system for that kind of thing, but they were able to get some help honoring those requests through the Havre Senior Center.

“We weren’t really set up for that... we did have the senior center, though,” he said. ”We contacted them and we were able to deliver 30 meals through their team to some folks in the community who were in need.”

He said customers sponsored all of those meals.