Grocery Hunt: Manchester’s surprising tapioca shortage

Hello! Welcome to Week 25 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.

Before we begin, here are some caveats.

• All prices were checked on Thursday, June 24 from approximately 11 a.m. to 1 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.

Steak Tips (price per lb.)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $10.99

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $11.42

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $13.99

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $16.99

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – n/a

Strawberries (1 lb.)

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $1.84

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $2.99

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $2.99

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $3.49

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $4.99

Ear of Corn

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $0.22

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $0.40

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $0.50

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $0.69

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $1.25 (only available in pack of four)

Red Kidney Beans (15.5 oz.)

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – $0.69

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $0.72

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $0.75

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $0.95

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $1.00

Instant Tapioca (3 oz.)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $1.29

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – n/a

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

Number of times when a store had the best price on a particular item (Year-to-Date) (After Week 26)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 35

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 34.33

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 17.33

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 9

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 7.5

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 3

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 1.5

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 1.83

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 25)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 99

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 92

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 88

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 59

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 40

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

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 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

Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – 0

A Market: 125 Loring St., Manchester, NH – 0

Previous Grocery Hunts

• June 18, 2021: Grocery Hunt: I put that price comparison column on everything!
• June 11, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Finishing off the spice rack (for now)
• June 4, 2021:  Grocery Hunt: BBQ supplies edition
• May 28, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Getting spicy week two: Electric Boogaloo
• May 21, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Let’s get spicy: Part One
• May 13, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Cheese and Pickles and What Not
• May 7, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Battle of the Liquids – Part Two
• April 29, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Battle of the Liquids – Part One
• April 22, 2021: Grocery Hunt: What would you pay for a Klondike Bar?
• April 13, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Taking the Keto Challenge
• April 9, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Steak Tips, Jumbo Shrimps, Greek Yogurt, Irish Butter and Vegetable Snack Product
• March 31, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Everybody has the same price on White Claw…with one exception
• March 24, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Ketchup prevents Market Basket sweep in Week Twelve
• March 17, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Salsa and taco sauce are not the same
• March 10, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Where’s the rutabaga?
• March 4, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Saint Patrick’s beef edition
• February 25, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Searching for the best part of waking up
• February 18, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Saving a penny on Thomas’ English Muffins
• February 8, 2021: Grocery Hunt: Five-way banana battle
• February 4, 2021: Grocery Hunt: What are Lady Gaga Oreos?
• 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!