Jun. 24th, 2015

angledge: (polar bear paw)
OK, maybe not. But still - I had a vision yesterday of the future of GIS & pricing data intersecting in a way that would undermine a lot of today's retail environment. Imagine if you had a program. You enter your shopping list - groceries, toiletries, etc. You'd fill in some other parameters - Yes, I'm fine with generics; I only want to buy meat/fish/poultry from Safeway; I have time to visit 3 (or 4, or 1) locations; maybe something like Yes, I'm fine with buying a bigger size box or getting 2 boxes of Cheerios instead of 1 if there's a sale. Then the program checks prices on all the items on your list at: Kroger, CVS, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, etc. It maps the nearest locations to where you are. It considers your parameters (I'm in a hurry today - let's get this done in 2 stops). And then it gives you your shopping lists, broken down by destination. Cool! I'm going to Target to get toilet paper, blueberries, peanut butter, eggs, & orange juice (buy 2 bottles & get free butter). Then I'm going to CVS to get shampoo, canned soup, hamburger buns, & antiperspirant (which wasn't on today's list, but is on a general "Keep in Stock" list, & is on a really good sale).

I know there are people out there who sit down every week with the shopping circulars & coupon sheets, & compare prices until they've found the cheapest deals for each item. But I think that vast majority of us massively fail to optimize this process. There are websites out there to help, but I've never found them all that useful because they mostly address processed/frozen/canned foods, & they only show bargains - not everything that's for sale. So if I want to buy a specific thing (ORGANIC FRESH PEACHES), I can't find that specific thing. This may be because they don't have access to the stores' entire price database - I don't know.

Maybe programs aren't smart enough yet to incorporate the flexible rules I'm envisioning, & that I think would make such a program more appealing to shoppers. But I don't think we're far from this. Someday, there will be an app for that. And it will be a game-changer for retail.

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