I don't think there are many people who object to the concept of organic food. What they object to is the price.

It's been my observation that organic food items cost, at minimum, a third more - and sometime double - than their conventionally grown or raised counterparts. And in a year when consumers are seeing the largest food price increases in nearly 20 years, organic food is becoming more and more of a luxury that many families can't afford.

That said, organic food is cheaper at some stores than at others. To find out where the Manchester organic food dollar goes furthest, I recently compared organic food prices at the city's  three grocery store chains: Shaw's, Stop & Shop and Hannaford. I also visited A Market, the city's oldest and largest natural food store.

At a time when new organic products are hitting the shelves seemingly everyday, I knew it would be nearly impossible to make a comprehensive comparison. Instead, I chose 13 items I feel are commonly bought organic products, from fresh and canned fruits and vegetables to dairy products to coffee and peanut butter. Being budget conscious, I gave preference to store brand items and included brand name items only when no store brand for the item in question could be found.

The results, a spreadsheet of which can be downloaded here, are interesting. 

As one might suspect, the best organic food selection can be found at A Market, which has has been doing the whole natural and organic food thing here in Manchester since 1970 - well before it became hip (that is to say profitable). With great selection, however, comes higher prices. Indeed, with the exception of whole bean coffee ($6.99 for a 12 oz. bag of Organic Coffee Company coffee) and bananas ($0.89/lb.), for which it boasts the lowest prices, A Market is the most expensive on just about every other item surveyed.

Shaw's has the second best organic selection. In its Wild Harvest section, Shaw's has a wide range of organic products including some items I haven't seen many places in these parts, including bacon and ground  beef (both of the frozen variety). Most impressive, however, is Shaw's organic fruit and vegetable section, which includes not-so-common items (for Manchester, anyway) like sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and portobello mushrooms:

Like A Market, however, better selection means with higher prices. Of the items surveyed, Shaw's has the lowest price on only one item: half and half (a pint of Organic Valley for $2.19).

Continuing the higher-the-organic-selection-the-higher-the-prices trend, Hannaford falls in the middle of the pack. The store has the best prices on two of the top five organic choices, milk ($2.99 for its store brand half gallon) and apples (a 3lb. bag for $4.49), but was highest on peanut butter ($4.29 for a jar of its store brand), another of the top five organic choices.

Bragging rights for the best organic food prices in Manchester go to Stop & Shop, which has the best prices on seven of the 13 items compared. The inverse of the better-selection-equals-higher-prices theorem shown with the other stores, Stop & Shop has, relatively speaking, the worst organic food selection - it doesn't even stock two of the 13 items - but on those items it does carry it has the best prices on most of them.