there are also a few asdas, where there are many bargains to be had. there is a huge one near the city of manchester stadium, one in hulme, and one about 25 minutes walk from the uni in longsight, though apparently this is a really dangerous gangster area, but no one told me this till april of my third year. i never saw any shady people there. i also belive longsight has a new branch of lidl, the dirt-cheap supermarket with stuff like 9p bottles of cola imported from lithuania.
like stan g says, the nearest one to whitworth park is a tesco express literally across the road, next to blockbuster video, but it's useless for fruit and veg, and a bit of a rip off compared to normal tescos.