Grocery Hunt: Which Hannaford has the Bucatini?

Hello! Welcome to Week Four 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. One retroactive change from last week, the prices on each item will be “winner-take-all” instead of the point system discussed last week. You can check out a full list of this year’s Grocery Hunt stories at the bottom of this article.

Before we begin, here are some caveats.

  • All prices were checked on Wednesday, Jan. 27 from approximately 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 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.

85% Lean Hamburger Meat

Market Basket had the best 85% lean hamburger price in Week 4, tied with Price Rite.

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $3.69 lb.

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – $3.69 lb. ($4.80 for 1.3 lb. container)

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH – $3.99 lb.

Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH  – $4.19 lb.

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH  – $5.99 lb.


McCormick Vanilla Extract

It’s easy to forget how expensive vanilla extract is by volume.

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $3.99 per oz. ($3.99, 1 fl. oz.)

Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH  – $4.99 per oz. ($16.99, 4 fl. oz; $10.49, 2 fl. oz.; $5.49, 1 fl. oz.)

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH – $5.62 per oz. ($5.49, 2 fl. oz.; $16.99, 4 fl. oz.)

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH  – $5.74 per oz.  ($8.99, 2 fl. oz.; $6.99, 1 fl. oz.)

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – n/a


Pastene Bucatini Pasta, 16 oz.

Bucatini pasta is straight like spaghetti, but thicker and with a hole in the middle, like a straw. You can find Pastene brand bucatini in the pasta aisle.

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH – $1.49

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $1.59

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

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH  – n/a


Oncor Chicken Nibblers

Oncor Chicken Nibblers are along the back wall at Shaw’s and behind Aisle 13 at Market Basket.

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH –   $0.11 cents per oz. ($3.99, 36 oz.)

Shaw’s: 570 Daniel Webster Hwy, Merrimack, NH – $0.16 cents per oz. ($4.29, 27 oz.)

Hannaford: 7 Kilton Rd, Bedford, NH  – n/a

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Hannaford: 140 Bicentennial Dr, Manchester, NH  – n/a


Pepperidge Farm Blueberry Turnovers

Sorry folks, only four turnover flavors remain.

Unfortunately, Pepperidge Farm has discontinued the blueberry flavor of their turnovers. We were unable to find any lingering blueberry turnovers on our search this week’s five stores. If you see any, please let us know!

Market Basket stays in the lead.

Year-to-Date Price Scores (After Week 4)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 6.5

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

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 – 12

Walmart: 275 Gold St., Manchester, NH – 5

Hannaford: 859 Hanover St., Manchester, NH – 5

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 – 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