Lazy Man's Guide to Saving Money when Buying Food in NH

[porcupine kate]

How can you live in NY and not know what Pocky is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky

[toowm]

For families, Sam's Club is worth the annual membership if you don't waste the larger quantities. Plus their gasolene for members is about 10 cents a gallon less consistently.

[thinkliberty]

Pocky is a pretzel with candy coating on it.

[Pat K]

How can you live in NY and not know what Pocky is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky

I have never heard of it before.
All this time I have been Pockless.

[Praeteridiot]

The grocery stores in Keene all seemed to sort of balance each other out, and their prices vary with different products, but not by a noticeable difference.  I found it easier on the brain to just walk to whichever one I was gonna walk to and be the cheapass that I am and chalk up any price difference at another store to the fact that it'd have been eaten up from walking across town.  Canned tomatoes are only gonna vary by so much. 

Price Chopper was the worst, though, since it's further than Shaws and Hannaford (since that Walmart doesn't have a produce section, and is right next to Shaws which does, I usually skipped Wallyworld entirely). yet the price deals are almost exactly the same as the other stores.  Add to that the fact that they don't carry kale in bunches (I think it only had it pre-bagged and cut, and organic) and their produce section in general was somehow confusing...and it's not worth it to consider.

Hannaford was the most likely to have crappy looking hot peppers for days (if they had them in stock at all), but they had kale.  The only cilantro they had was I think organic, but you can get celery in bulk, there.  Also has a better selection of pasta shapes than the other stores, and their canned chopped clams was markedly cheaper than Shaws.

Shaws has kale (yaaay) but it's by weight and the stems are huge.  Also carries cilantro (and it was of better quality than where I am right now), but the problem of peppers was often the same as hannaford. 

[dalebert]

I haven't done a scientific study, but the prices at Price Chopper seem significantly higher in general. I hardly ever go there.

One night my roommate came home with stuph from there and I noticed he bought the exact same brand of blueberries that I had just bought at Hannaford a day or so earlier. I told him I paid $2 for mine and was willing to bet that his were at least $3. He checked the receipt and they were $4!

[Pat K]

I really like blueberries, they have been very cheap
this year. It must have been bumper crops.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Price Chopper is best for stuff on sale

[cathleeninnh]

Nothing lazy about my way. I keep a price list for every item that I buy. I go back through it to check if today's sale price compares favorably to what I paid last time at a different store. Yesterday, I had to pay $1 more for store brand coffee than I paid one year ago. You don't notice it much from one month to the next.

Good thing the is no inflation, so I am told.

[porcupine kate]

Cathleen I used to do that.  I need to get back into that habit.  It saved me a ton of money.  It also let me know if a sale was a deal or if it would be worth using a coupon on.
Kate

[Scott Roth]

It was first sold in 1966,[1] and consists of a pretzel stick coated with chocolate. The name was changed to "Pocky," after the Japanese onomatopoetic word for the sound Pocky makes when bitten, pokkin (????). The original was followed by "Almond Pocky" in 1971, with an almond coating, and "Strawberry Pocky" in 1977. Today, the product line includes such variations as milk, mousse, green tea, honey, banana and coconut flavored coatings, and themed products such as "Decorer Pocky," with colorful decorative stripes in the coating, and "Men's Pocky," a dark (bittersweet) chocolate and "mature" version.
It was first sold in 1966,[1] and consists of a pretzel stick coated with chocolate. The name was changed to "Pocky," after the Japanese onomatopoetic word for the sound Pocky makes when bitten, pokkin (????). The original was followed by "Almond Pocky" in 1971, with an almond coating, and "Strawberry Pocky" in 1977. Today, the product line includes such variations as milk, mousse, green tea, honey, banana and coconut flavored coatings, and themed products such as "Decorer Pocky," with colorful decorative stripes in the coating, and "Men's Pocky," a dark (bittersweet) chocolate and "mature" version.
Pocky can be found in dozens of varieties such as chocolate, strawberry, and almond. Some of the more unusual flavors include the seasonal flavors of honey (spring) and kiwifruit mango (summer). The bittersweet version of chocolate Pocky is known as Men's Pocky. Regional flavors of Pocky include grape (Nagano), y?bari melon (Hokkaid?), giant mikan (tangerine, sold in the Ky?sh? region), powdered tea azuki bean (Kyoto), Kobe wine (Kobe), and five-fusion berry (Goka). There are also such flavors as banana, coffee, caramel, marble royal milk tea, melon, milk, honey and milk, choco banana, cream cheese, berry, sweet potato, coconut, crush (crunchy cracker pieces in chocolate), pineapple, pumpkin, hazelnut, kurogoma (black sesame), kinako (soy bean flour), marron, Brazilian pudding, mikan, blueberry, apple yogurt, and green tea.
Special variations of Pocky include Decorer Pocky (which features extra decorative icing) and Mousse Pocky (which features extra thick, "creamy" mousse-like icing and is more exclusive). Unlike other Pocky variations, Mousse Pocky packages especially contain fewer pieces than regular Pocky with only nine pieces per pack.
Another variation of Pocky is the My Calorie Pocky (?? ???? ????, mai karor? pokk??), which has 1/4 the calories of regular chocolate Pocky.
A related product is Pretz, which is an unglazed version of Pocky, featuring flavors like tomato, pizza, and salad, as well as sweet flavors such as French toast.
There is some confusion in the English-speaking world as to how to pronounce "Pocky". Japanese pokk? is pronounced [pok?i?]. Both it and its Roman transcription are analogous to English words such as "rocky", which is taken into Japanese as rokk?, suggesting an intended English pronunciation of /?p?ki/.

[AntonLee]

I agree with those that say Demoulas (Market Basket) is the best for pricing.  I do wish they had online circulars.

[porcupine kate]

I too wish Market Basket had fliers.  I do try and stop in when I am near one.  It is a half hour drive to the closest one.  It is rumored that they are building in near the Manchester/Hooksett line.


Target has some really good prices on canned goods this week.

[djbridgeland]

Very cool, I have always wondered why they (Market Basket) didn't have a store in a city and immediate metro area with nearly 10% of NH's population.  I defiantly prefer the Market Basket being that they have the lowest regular prices (on most items), are not union controlled and don't have those annoying savers cards that I am fearful of.  It does seem like family owned grocery store chains at least where I have lived have had the best prices and deals.   

[Praeteridiot]

...One night my roommate came home with stuph from there and I noticed he bought the exact same brand of blueberries that I had just bought at Hannaford a day or so earlier. I told him I paid $2 for mine and was willing to bet that his were at least $3. He checked the receipt and they were $4!

Utter tragedy.  He didn't even know how much they were until after he'd bought them?