Grocery Hunt: Looking through the “over-the-counter” aisle

Hello! Welcome to Week 39 of the Grocery Hunt, Manchester Ink Link’s guide to Manchester-area grocery stores.

Each week, we ask 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.

We’re also taking a look items we looked at in a previous weeks and provide change in price where applicable.

Before we begin, here are some caveats.

All prices were checked on Wednesday, Sept. 29 from 12 p.m. to 2 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 sizes of the exact same item will be compared by weight or volume. If stores have multiple variations of an item with differing prices, the lowest price will be used.

Aquafresh (5.6 oz.)

  • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH –  $1.67
  • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH –  $1.99
  • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $2.19
  • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH –  $2.29
  • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $2.69

Dial (3.4 oz., three bars)

  • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $2.29
  • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $2.29
  • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $2.39
  • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $2.99
  • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Centrum (130 pills)

  • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $9.99
  • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – n/a
  • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – n/a
  • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – n/a
  • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Pepto Bismol (8 oz.)

  • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $4.28
  • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $4.39
  • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $4.99
  • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $5.49
  • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $5.99

Halls cough drops (30 drops)

  • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $1.78
  • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH –  $1.79
  • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $1.89
  • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $2.69
  • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – n/a

Number of times when a store had the best price on a particular item (Year-to-Date) (After Week 39)

      • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 58.33
      • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 56
      • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 27.83
      • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 15.5
      • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 9
      • Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 7.5
      • Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 1.5
      • Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 1.83
      • Target: 100 Quality Dr, Hooksett, NH – 1
      • Shaw’s: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 1
      • Ocean State Job Lot: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 1
      • Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH – .5
      • Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – 0
      • Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – 0
      • Whole Foods: 121 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 0
      • A Market: 125 Loring St., Manchester, NH – 0

Number of times when a store had a particular item in stock (After Week 38)

      • Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 162
      • Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 155
      • Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 146
      • Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 122
      • Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 70
      • Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 13
      • Shaw’s: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 12
      • Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 8
      • Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH – 7
      • Target: 100 Quality Dr, Hooksett, NH – 5
      • Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 3
      • Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – 3
      • Ocean State Job Lot: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 2
      • Whole Foods: 121 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 2
      • Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – 1
      • A Market: 125 Loring St., Manchester, NH – 0

Previous Grocery Hunts