Some folks were doing a little belt-tightening when it came to shopping for this year's Thanksgiving dinner. Others had plenty of room to spare.

With the inflation rate holding steady nationwide, the cost of this year's holiday feast depended on where you lived and where you shopped.

"It's such a regional business; so a lot of the time what's happening in New York has nothing to do with what's happening in California,'' said Edward Comeau, a senior vice president who follows the supermarket industry for Lehman Brothers in New York. "Turkey prices were different in every market.'' In its annual Thanksgiving survey of retail prices, the American Farm Bureau Federation said that the nationwide average for a turkey was 79 cents a pound this year, but it noted some shoppers in Florida paid $1.39 a pound while others in Arizona were charged only 29 cents per pound.

"Prices as low as 19 cents per pound were seen in some parts of the country,'' according to the survey, which was recently conducted by 73 volunteer shoppers in 27 states.

The federation said the average cost of this year's traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 was $28.39, or around $2.84 a person, up $1.34 from last year but 44 cents below four years ago. A 16-pound turkey cost on average $12.01, 95 cents more than last year.

Other menu ingredients that had higher prices, according to the federation, included: a 14-ounce package of cubed stuffing, $2.26, up two cents; three pounds of sweet potatoes, $1.62, up 11 cents; a 12-ounce package of rolls, $1.09, up 16 cents; 12-ounce package of frozen peas, $1.01, up five cents; and a 12-ounce package of fresh cranberries, $1.82, up four cents.

The holiday menu also included a relish dish, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and milk and coffee.

While prices varied, almost all supermarkets strategically sold their turkeys below cost, on average 30 cents per pound, according to Comeau.

"Supermarket chains had freezers full of turkeys that they had to get rid of,'' he said, describing retail sales as healthy. "They had to make sure they had a competitive price on turkeys to get people in their stores. This was the biggest week of the year for them.

"They made it up on everything else they sold.'' Cans of vegetables, for instance, had a 10 to 12 percent markup while some perishable items were priced as much as 40 to 50 percent above the wholesale cost, Comeau said.

While Thanksgiving was the busiest shopping season for supermarket chains, the holiday wasn't quite as important for farmers, largely because agriculture had become such a diversified business, said Rick Bush, a spokesman for the farm federation.

"It used to be a critical holiday for cranberry growers, for example. Back in the '50s it made all the difference for them,'' he said.

But the cranberry's spread into mainstream drinks made Thanksgiving a much less significant sales event. Likewise with turkey growers, whose diversification into foods ranging from deli sandwich fare to turkey burgers and hot dogs had eased the pressure for high sales of the birds at Thanksgiving.

"For farmers, Thanksgiving was profitable in general because the demand helped the get prices up,'' Bush said. "But it was also the best value around. Feeding 10 people for $28 was a pretty good deal.''