Fun facts for Thanksgiving

You can tell it’s time to get a hobby when you can relate everything that comes your way to the supply chain. I will admit, people run from me at parties just so they can avoid listening to me talk about conveyors, sortation systems and RFID. While I find what we do completely engrossing, even I understand why no one else wants to hear about the cool DC I just visited.

Which brings me to an e-mail we just got from Manhattan Associates. Like me, I’m guessing they’re sitting around today trying to figure out how to look busy and tie Thanksgiving into what we all do for a living. So, here are some fun facts and thoughts about Thanksgiving and the supply chain (truth be told, I got nothin’ else to write about). You can read the whole entry on Manhattan’s website.

“In 1621, you couldn’t use your 4G Smartphone app to order a 20 pound Cajun-season-injected frozen turkey and pick it up at your local grocery store on the way home from the office. In fact, if it weren’t for the Wampanoag Indian tribe’s agricultural skills and generosity, it is speculated that the 54 Plymouth settlers would not have made it through the first winter.

“While the exact first Thanksgiving meal is unknown, we do know that the Mayflower pilgrims and Native Americans shared a feast together. The tradition of coming together after the harvest continued, and in 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday. Today, there are more than 300 million Americans and of those, some 250 million eat nearly 46 million turkeys during the holiday - or one sixth of all turkeys grown in a year.


“Today, you don’t have to worry about hunting, killing, growing and gathering food for your annual Thanksgiving meal. Through elaborate supply chain networks, the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and all the other fixings can easily go from the farm, to the distribution center, to the grocery store and finally to your table. Utilizing the latest in supply chain technologies, grocery stores are able to supply customers with anything they can imagine including deep fryers, organic free range turkeys and Turduckens.”

So, there you have it. When you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, among the things you can give thanks for is the role each of us plays in getting the Thanksgiving fixings from the farm to the family dinner table. Happy thanksgiving, and thanks to Manhattan Associates for the submission.