Hello! Welcome to Week Five of the Grocery Hunt, Manchester Ink Link’s guide to Manchester-area grocery stores.
Over the weekend, we asked our readers to give us five specific grocery items and five separate Manchester-area grocery stores so we could find the prices and availability of those items.
We’re also tracking the prices and availability of each item week by week with the hopes of finding the local grocery store with the best prices and best availability for items that our readers are looking for.
Before we begin, here are some caveats.
- All prices were checked on Wednesday, Feb. 3 from approximately 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Prices and item availability may change without notice.
- Items may have been available during the aforementioned time but could not be found. Within this column, all efforts available to an ordinary grocery shopper were made to find the item. If you see an error here, please e-mail a picture of the item and the price tag to andy@manchesterinklink.com
- Unless asked for a specifically-sized item by a reader, situations where stores have different amounts of the exact same item will be compared by weight or volume. If stores have multiple sizes of that item, the average cost per weight or volume will be used. Averaged prices are rounded to nearest hundredth of a cent.
Bresaola
Our first request of the week came via e-mail. Unfortunately, we could not find this cousin to salami in any of the five stores we visited.
Online, the closest confirmed location we could find selling bresaola was an Italian grocer in Boston. If you don’t want to travel that far, here’s a video on how to make bresaola at home.
Lady Gaga Oreos
Another request outside of our normal channels on the Manchester Ink Link Facebook page, these special limited-edition Oreos came in two apparent types: “blue” (family size, about 19 oz.) and “pink.” (about 12 oz.), so only half credit for the stores that only had one version but not the other.
Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $2.93 per lb. (2 for $7, “blue”)
Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – $3.09 per lb. ($3.69 for “blue”)
Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $3.94 per lb. ($3.67 for “pink” and for “blue”)
Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $4.28 per lb. ($3.99 for “blue” and “pink”)
Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – They had no idea what it was.
Mrs. Budd’s Fully Baked White Meat Chicken Pot Pie with Broccoli, Carrots and Pearl Onions
Although several stores on our list had other Mrs. Budd’s products, none of them had this particular variation of this famous chicken pot pie made right here in Manchester.
Mueller’s Pasta
Like the bresaola and the pot pie, none of the five stores had Mueller’s pasta at the time of this week’s Grocery Hunt. More information about the pasta itself can be found on the Mueller’s website.
Frozen Chicken Breast
Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $4.44 lb. (Perdue Harvestland)
Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $4.56 lb. (Perdue Harvestland skinless with rib meat, $7.49 lb.; Good and Gather, $2.66 lb.; Good and Gather organic, $6.49 lb., Tyson boneless skinless chicken breasts, $2.79 lb.; Perdue diced chicken breast, $4.99 lb.; Good and Gather boneless skinless garlic herb seasoned chicken breast, $2.99 lb.)
Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $4.72 lb. (Tyson grilled and ready)
Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $5.53 lb. (Tyson grilled and ready)
Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – n/a
Year-to-Date Price Scores (After Week 5)
Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 9.5
Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 2
Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 1
Shaw’s: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 1
Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 1
Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 1
Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 0.5
Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH – 0
Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 0
Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – 0
Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – 0
Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 0
Year-to-Date Item Availability Scores (After Week 4)
Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 14.5
Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 8
Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 8
Shaw’s: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 4
Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 3
Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 3
Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH – 2
Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 3
Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 2
Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 2
Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – 1
Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – 0
Previous Grocery Hunts
- January 28, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Which Hannaford has the Bucatini?
- January 20, 2021: Scrapple gives Market Basket bragging rights in Week 3 of the Grocery Hunt
- January 14, 2021: Walmart takes the crown in Week 2 of the Grocery Hunt
- January 6, 2021: Introducing the Manchester-area Grocery Hunt!
