Mike Young is all out of pumpkin pie filling.

"I think we sold our last can this morning of it," says the manager of the L&L Food Center on North Hagadorn in East Lansing.

He sold out, along with just about every store in the country. A flooding wiped out much of this year's pumpkin harvest.

The other explanation, of course? The traditional Wednesday grocery rush ahead of Thanksgiving.

"The day before Thanksgiving is always the second-busiest day for retail-grocery sales in the country," Young says.

He says sales at his L&L should come in three times the volume of your average Wednesday.

Local pizza shops, like Papa John's in downtown Lansing, should see the rush, too.

"It's friends and family coming home," says manager Bruce Curtis. "A lot of people that we haven't seen for a while will show up with kids home from college."

Curtis says folks also see pizza as an easy option, ahead of all the cooking they have to do tomorrow. The bonus for his shop? They'll sell a good 20 or 30 more pizzas than they do on an average night.

"If we're busy late, we might stay open an extra 45 minutes," he says.

That extra 45 minutes should allow Papa John's to catch the rush from local watering holes. They, too, stand to witness a big night.

"Nothing to do the night before obviously, so you come down, have a few brews before you go home to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends," says Dean Mazzolini, owner of Bruno's Bar in downtown St. Johns.

His joint has been around more than 50 years. Mazzolini says the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is consistently the biggest night of the year.

"Much better. Probably four or five times [the sales volume of] the average Wednesday."

It's a reason for local business owners to be thankful this holiday season -- especially in the midst of a recession.