Hello! Welcome to Week Three 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. 20 from approximately 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 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.

Aldi had the best cream cheese prices in Week 3. It’s located at the back of the store at Aldi and Price Rite, along the front wall at Bunny’s and in aisle 1 at Market Basket.

Block of cream cheese (store brand)

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – $0.09 per oz. ($0.69, 8 oz.)

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – $0.16 per oz. ($1.29, 8 oz.)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $0.19 per oz. ($1.59, 8 oz.)

Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – $0.24 per oz. ($1.99, 8 oz.)

Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Scrapple

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

Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – n/a

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

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

Ricotta cheese is located in aisle 1 at Market Basket and the rear wall at Price Rite.

Ricotta cheese, whole milk, 32 oz.

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $2.99 (Galbani brand)

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – $3.99 (store brand)

Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH –

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

Unfortunately, none of the five stores had Strawberry Quik powder. Market Basket (seen here) had strawberry syrup and chocolate powder and Saigon had the chocolate powder as well.

Strawberry Quik (powdered)

Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – n/a

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

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

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

Market Basket had two types of Green Giant cauliflower pizza crusts.

Green Giant pizza crust

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – $4.69

Saigon Asian Market: 476 Union St., Manchester, NH – n/a

Bunny’s Superette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – n/a

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

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

With the readers eschewing Walmart in Week 3, the Elm St. Market Basket has taken the 2021 Grocery Hunt lead for price and availability.

Year-to-Date Price Scores (After Week 3)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 4

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

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 0

Bunny’s Suprette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – 0

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

Year-to-Date Item Availability Scores (After Week 3)

Market Basket: 460 Elm St., Manchester, NH – 8

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

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

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

Price Rite: 365 Lincoln St., Manchester, NH – 2

Aldi: 1111 S. Willow St., Manchester, NH – 2

Bunny’s Suprette: 75 Webster St., Manchester, NH – 1

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

Previous Grocery Hunts

14, 2021: Walmart takes the crown in Week 2 of the Grocery Hunt
6, 2021: Introducing the Manchester-area Grocery Hunt!

Other Posts To Check Out: