Grocery Hunt: Salsa and taco sauce are not the same

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

Earlier this week, 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, March 17 from approximately 2 p.m. to 4:30 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.

Walmart and Market Basket had Ortega taco sauce, but not salsa – Hannaford had the best price when it came to salsa.

Ortega Mild Salsa

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $2.49/lb.

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $2.69/lb.

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – n/a


The other stores had Willow Tree chicken salad, but Hannaford’s store brand was cheapest.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $6.92/lb.

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $7.45/lb.

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $7.46/lb.

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $9.60/lb.

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – n/a


Reese’s were cheapest at Market Basket.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $8.43/lb.

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $8.46/lb.

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $9.57/lb.

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $13.09/lb.

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – n/a


Pam spray is measured in solid rather than liquid measurements, apparently.

Pam Original Canola Oil Blend Spray

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $7.44/lb.

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $7.67/lb.

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $10.31/lb.

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Good deal at Aldi for butter this week.

Salted Butter (Store Brand)

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – $1.79/lb.

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – $2.49/lb.

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $2.50/lb.

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – $2.96/lb. (1 lb. – $2.98, 2 lb. – $2.94)

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $2.99/lb.

Number of times when a store had the best price on a particular item (Year-to-Date) (After Week 11)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 17

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 8

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

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 6

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 2

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

Shaw’s: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 1

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 1

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

Whole Foods: 121 S River Rd, Bedford, NH – 0

Number of times when a store had a particular item in stock (After Week 11)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 38

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 31

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 30

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – 15

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 13

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 8

Shaw’s: 1328 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett, NH – 4

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH 03110 – 3

Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH – 2

Target: 220 S River Rd, Bedford, 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

Previous Grocery Hunts