Hannaford in my experience. But Shaw's can be good if you shop their sales.

The correct answer, of course, is Market Basket.

97% of the time, it works every time.

Second place goes to Hannie's easily.

Imho, shaw's has always been more expensive, the store usually dirty, and smells abit funky.

Hannaford has always had better prices

Both.

The deals at Shaws can be ridiculously well priced, and generally speaking, they have a better selection / pricing on meat and dairy.

Hannaford has the better produce by a long shot and better priced store brands.

Everything else is hit or miss on pricing.

Hannaford Rewards has saved me a bunch of money. A tiny bit of extra work pays off.

Hannafords— you don’t end up throwing out half the produce because it’s rotted after a day. Whenever I go home to visit I get treated to the “I bought this lettuce yesterday!! How is it moldy?!” rant from my mom at least once a week lol

Shaws is on their way out.

Hannaford

Well here are my tips for picking out good lettuce if your mom doesn't have this in mind:

• Look for heavy lettuce. The heavier the better.
• The least amount of mold (the red stuff) and the least amount of mystery slime at the bottom (that might just be exclusive to Walmart, I dunno) as possible.
• Clean green leaves. All the time. Every time.

Takes some rustling through the entire section of lettuce, but it's worked for us. We chop it, throw it into stainless steel containers, stick it in the fridge...if it's in the back then it lasts us for a couple weeks.

The quality of food at hanny's is moar gooder than that at shaws..

For me, Hannaford's is a better value.

Globally Hannaford has better prices. But Shaws has it's place. They have a much nicer bakery usually and a better international section. The meat is usually better amd the produce is hit or miss depending on the Shaws. Shaws has better sales but they're sometimes obtuse and same goes for their rewards program. Where the hannaford one isn't annoying and the sales don't require you to pay super close attention.

Hannaford, and the store doesn't smell like feet... Looking at you Shaws in Augusta.

Okay, I will agree with you on the bakery.

Damn I love their carrot cake…

Man I’ve had such bad luck with perishables from Shaws too. Dates can be fine but it’s all going bad within 2 days.

Walmart :)

Walmart usually has yellow onions for $.98/lb, Shaw's and Hanny's?...$1.49/lb

Hanny's artichokes?...$4.99/lb for smallish dried up chokes, Wally's $2.49/lb and 3 X the size.

Briskett?...Hannys regular price, not corned, $10.99lb, Wally's $3.99/lb

​

Between Shaw's and Hanny's in my area it seems to be a tie, dependent totally on the week and what you're looking for.

Took the words out of my brain

Lol so true

I personally hate Shaws, I feel like everything is over priced. With that said, hannaford also sucks depending on location. Hampden and Bucksport hannaford are both a decent amount more then Brewer hannaford. So I would compare the two stores in your area for a better idea.

Shaws price gouges on the dumbest things. However they do have inventory stock compared to Hannafords sometimes.

Not driving an hour to go grocery shopping so its back to the original question for me.

Market Basket is an anti-union shop located right over the line in Westbrook so it doesn't have to pay Portland minimum wages, so your low prices are the product of labor exploitation. Fuck that shit.

Hannaford is cheaper if you're just doing general grocery shopping.

Shaws can have great deals but if you're buying something NOT on sale it's probably the same price or cheaper at Hannaford.

How do they even stay in business? I hate the schizo nature of most items being exorbitantly priced while other items can be an excellent value. It's like feeling happy to find bargains only to be hit in the face with a pie in the snack aisle.

I also hate the games they play. Never mind the game pieces or stamps. Just give me the lower price.

In a year or 2 Topsham will have a MB. Right down the road from Hannie. Shaws is slowly going out of business. Closing stored left and right until its gone.

Hannaford has better quality meat and produce. Shaws is finally cleaning up stores, but self-service checkout is crappy, customer service is often difficult.

Shaws has a lot of sale items, but you have to buy 5 or 10 of something. It annoys me no end and I avoid shopping Shaws because of it. Sure, I can store an extra 4 packages of pasta, but not frozen food, and I don't want that many packages of cookies in the house.

Quality at Walmart can be sketchy; some of their own-brand goods are nasty.
Walmart loves giant packages; I saw some nice looking pumpkin bites with crumb topping, but 244 of them is a bit much (I exaggerated, oops, it was probably 24).
I occasionally shop Walmart because it's there and has other useful stuff, but it's not satisfying.

How does that explain the location in Biddeford, which was the first Maine location?

That's why I offered a more convenient second place.

Agreed with most of the comments, Hannaford will probably be cheaper overall unless you catch amazing deals at Shaws. The checkout lines at Shaws are brutal though and the ones I frequent have no self-checkouts.

And another vote for Market Basket, all of zMaine needs one ASAP.

The more stores you shop at the cheaper your grocery bill will be.

Anti-labor policies aren't confined to being Portland-adjacent. Moreover, you have google and can inform yourself should you find my comment less than an entire comprehensive treatise on Market Basket's approach to labor and employment issues. It's not my job to do your research for you unless you want to pay my hourly rate.

All I know in regards to MB's employment (not their labor practices) is that they hire and treat disabled people well. That's enough of a green flag for me.