Shopping Discussion

new app to find lowest grocery prices

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  • May 12th, 2023 11:11 am
[OP]
Sr. Member
Apr 6, 2003
827 posts
173 upvotes
Toronto

new app to find lowest grocery prices

A friend is in the process of building an app that will help people save money on groceries and other everyday items (e.g., laundry detergent) by showing users the price for each item at their local brick-and-mortar stores (not e-commerce). For example, you would be able to see the store that has the lowest price for cough syrup, bananas, lean ground beef, soy sauce, etc. today in your area (after all coupons, discounts etc). It could also tell you, if you're visiting two stores and have a shopping list, what to buy at each store to maximize your savings. They have a couple of ideas on how to get this data.

They're trying to understand if an app like this would be useful for people. Would you find it useful? Do you find flyers and flyer apps sufficient? If you like the idea, what features would you like the app to have?
11 replies
Deal Addict
Apr 29, 2018
4721 posts
3817 upvotes
Vancouver
I would like to be able to create a shopping list and add products. Then have it tell me what to buy from where. Though the only issue I see is monetization. Unless one is making money off it, like a restaurateur, might be hard to find people to pay for it
Can't Stop. Won't Stop. Game Stop
Deal Guru
Aug 14, 2007
13466 posts
4661 upvotes
Durham
How would these prices get updated and at what frequency. This would be one of the biggest challenges as even sites like stock track in my experience aren't very accurate with stock levels. Would the data be pulled from say, Walmarts site where you can order online and pick up?

For me, if what I mostly want is on sale at one store I'll usually get the rest of what I need the next day or in the same shop as for me, there's nothing I hate more than going from store to store to save $0.50 here and $1.00 there.

But with that said, flyer apps are fine for me.
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User avatar
Oct 2, 2018
4031 posts
4728 upvotes
Toronto
Would be nice to get a notification when a particular item hits a threshold of a set amount of discount, so perhaps when Prime Rib AAA goes at 15 or 20% off. Have a user designate the amount, once it hits a text message or app notification.

Might be nice to browse by list of products by percentage off of the regular price, one might not usually purchase that item however this would be an opportunity to try it out if the sale is large enough.
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Mr. Blitz
Deal Addict
Sep 24, 2004
1287 posts
937 upvotes
Scarborough
In addition to the Shopping List, I'd like to have a "Wish List". It would be like a laundry list of the items I generally but, and would move it in/out of the shopping list, as required
Member
Mar 6, 2011
432 posts
339 upvotes
I made a site that incorporates some of this functionality - grocerytracker.ca
I think there’s definitely lots of potential in terms of features that would make something like this even more useful (direct comparison across retailers, notifications only for certain levels of discounts, etc). I’m hoping to eventually add some of this, but dont always have a ton of time to work on it.
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Lightspeed Internet
Deal Expert
Feb 7, 2017
34055 posts
34408 upvotes
Eastern Ontario
XtremeModder wrote: How would these prices get updated and at what frequency. This would be one of the biggest challenges as even sites like stock track in my experience aren't very accurate with stock levels. Would the data be pulled from say, Walmarts site where you can order online and pick up?

For me, if what I mostly want is on sale at one store I'll usually get the rest of what I need the next day or in the same shop as for me, there's nothing I hate more than going from store to store to save $0.50 here and $1.00 there.

But with that said, flyer apps are fine for me.
This is us too

We review Flipp … and then shop the store that has the most bargains … compared against our ongoing Shopping List of things we are out of … or WANTS & NEEDS

It’s not perfect … but it’s a pretty good method

Unless we actually have the inclination and time to run around store to store

Biggest issue I see with this App proposal … is the continual need for 24/7/365 updating of the info in any such App

Who’s gonna commit to that amount of time ? … and where are they gonna cull their data from

Cuz those are key elements to any potential success

And WHOS gonna pay the freight on all this research & maintenance ?

Flipp strictly works off of the weekly flyers … so it’s culling info from each flyer … that’s crazy different from trying to keep updated tabs on like 50,000 to 100,000 ITEM PER STORE IN REAL TIME
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User avatar
Feb 8, 2014
33479 posts
16736 upvotes
Socially Distanced
Scan barcode and give current prices

Price alerts at user selected threshold
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Member
Feb 27, 2014
342 posts
86 upvotes
Ron wrote: A friend is in the process of building an app that will help people save money on groceries and other everyday items (e.g., laundry detergent) by showing users the price for each item at their local brick-and-mortar stores (not e-commerce). For example, you would be able to see the store that has the lowest price for cough syrup, bananas, lean ground beef, soy sauce, etc. today in your area (after all coupons, discounts etc). It could also tell you, if you're visiting two stores and have a shopping list, what to buy at each store to maximize your savings. They have a couple of ideas on how to get this data.

They're trying to understand if an app like this would be useful for people. Would you find it useful? Do you find flyers and flyer apps sufficient? If you like the idea, what features would you like the app to have?
This will be useful. At present, if I want to buy toilet roll or tide pods, I will visit each store individual sites to find out which store has the lowest price and a sale on that item. Stores that I checked are Walmart, Superstore, London Drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart, Safeway, Save-on-Foods, IGA, T&T, etc. My region is Greater Vancouver.
Member
Feb 27, 2014
342 posts
86 upvotes
dtaylorl wrote: I made a site that incorporates some of this functionality - grocerytracker.ca
I think there’s definitely lots of potential in terms of features that would make something like this even more useful (direct comparison across retailers, notifications only for certain levels of discounts, etc). I’m hoping to eventually add some of this, but dont always have a ton of time to work on it.
grocerytracker.ca covers only stores in Alberta? Will be useful if it covers other major cities.

SaleWhale used to be able to do that but no more last time I tried to use.
Member
Mar 6, 2011
432 posts
339 upvotes
kaliman wrote: grocerytracker.ca covers only stores in Alberta? Will be useful if it covers other major cities.

SaleWhale used to be able to do that but no more last time I tried to use.
The charts on the front page are only for Calgary, but the rest of the site (searching for products, adding to baskets, getting notifications, etc) are for locations anywhere in the country.

I’ll eventually add charts for Toronto and Vancouver as well, but that’s really only a very small part of the site.
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