(Credit:
CNET / Josh Lowensohn)
Grocery comparison site Grocio is inching closer to a public launch. On Monday it opened up its doors to beta users in Tulsa, Okla.
The site, which helps people comparison shop for goods at local grocery stores, is still a long ways from being available nationwide. Its methodology, though, is sound. Each week founder Gerald Buckley sends out scans of the latest grocery circulars--yes, the ones that turn Sunday's paper into a phonebook-size behemoth, to Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Once there, they're transcribed into text files that Grocio's search engine can use to do its magic.
The whole process takes about two hours. After which, users can see how much the items on their grocery list would cost, then pick out the lowest-priced store--complete with any coupons that they'd need to print out and bring with them.
Getting that pricing and coupon information from the circulars is not exactly the fastest or most cost-effective method, but so far it's been one of the only ways to play. Buckley says that since its launch, grocers have perceived Grocio one of two ways: some have gladly handed over the latest pricing information, while others look at the service as a threat--something that could chase away potential customers.
Despite the fact that most shoppers aren't likely to go across town to pick up the other half of their shopping list, some grocers worry that Grocio's system means they won't come at all if they're getting an all-around better price elsewhere.
When Grocio figures out how much you'll save, it tells you how much you're saving, where to go, and gives you a printout of your shopping list and any coupons you need to bring.
(Credit: Grocio)Part of Buckley's strategy at winning both sides has been to start low, and to play them off each other. He's gunned for the "value-leaders," or stores that are running big sales on what they're selling. Getting these stores into the system means shoppers will have to compare those prices to the higher-margin competition, who in turn have to step it up to get noticed.
To augment that, last month Buckley introduced... Read More
If you want to start buying groceries online, we have five sites for you to try out. Few of them are designed well and a couple require up to five days to actually get your groceries. When it comes to buying groceries online, the experience is far from perfect. But I think you might find value in some of these options.
The wide world of groceries
Amazon's grocery store, while still in beta, is designed well. Finding groceries takes just a few seconds. Adding goods to your shopping cart mimics the familiar Amazon experience. And prices are usually better than at my local supermarket. That said, I did find some better deals at wholesale brick-and-mortar stores, like BJ's and Costco.
Delivery is a major concern for most online grocery shoppers. That's where Amazon really shines. Amazon offers its "Free Super Saver" shipping on most products. You'll get your delivery in five to seven days. You can also get bulk items like paper towels in three to five business days with free shipping. If you want your groceries sooner, you'll be forced to pay for it, but Amazon can accommodate just about any time frame you require.
The Amazon grocery shopping experience is convenient, simple, and affordable. I highly recommend it.
I was generally impressed with AulSuperStore's inventory of groceries. Almost anything you search for will be on the site. But beware that some products I came across were sold out--something I never saw on Amazon. Prices were competitive, but they didn't quite match Amazon's pricing.
Delivery is the biggest issue facing AulSuperStore. You can't expedite shipping. If you're in Upstate New York, New York City, or New Jersey, you'll get your groceries in one day. But if you're in California, don't expect them for at least four days. Such a rigid delivery system will probably turn some people off.
AulSuperStore, while competitive on prices, isn't competitive on anything else. I don't recommend it if you live outside of New York or New Jersey.
... Read More
Based on the growing size of our layoff tracker and the number of pitches we get starting with "in today's tough economic climate..." it's a great time to launch a service that helps save people cash. Grocio is no stranger to that idea, and lets you comparison shop for groceries without even having to leave the house.
Assuming you're the kind of person who sticks to their shopping list, and nothing but what's on that list this could end up being an incredibly handy service. It plugs into pricing provided by local retailers (including any coupons you might have on hand) to let you know which store has the lowest price, along with how much your shopping list will cost at each retailer.
The service hasn't launched yet, and is rolling out in limited markets to begin with, but you can see a demo of how it works here. Something tells me this would be a huge hit with college students if you could narrow it down to just beer and snacks.
Related: GroceryGuide: Local food deals and sales database extraordinaire
(via Alternate Search Engines)
Add items to your list and price check them at various retailers with Grocio.
(Credit: Grocio)
Now here's a Web app that could save you money on something you're bound to be doing on a weekly basis: buying food. GroceryGuide takes all the data from weekly grocery sales circulars and makes them available online in one large database. Similar to some of the aggregation sites that do this with electronics deals, you can either browse by store, or create a list of three items you'd like to search for from up to two different local stores at a time. If you find an item you like, you can then add it to a shopping list that can be printed up to take with you when you go.
What sets this apart from simply going through the ads in your local paper is the price history tracking, which for some items will go back as far as 19 years of sales data to let you know what's happened to an item's price over time. The service also assigns an automatic star rating to supplement the price rating, which can help you sort out the good deals from the lackluster. If you're not happy with the rating it's been given, you can also give the deal a thumbs up or down to let other users know.
Check out the price history of an item over the past few years, and get a recipe while you're at it with GroceryGuide.
(Credit: CNET Networks)For the uninspired user, GroceryGuide integrates recipes for several food items. These will show up alongside an item, and can be popped out to be printed for kitchen use. What's notably missing is a way to add the other items from those recipes to your shopping list, or have the service automatically recommend recipes based on the items that you have already saved to the list. Considering some other services do this like All Recipes and CookingByNumbers, it would be great to see this get added.
I found that the search function did not work nearly as well as I was expecting. Searching by brand or item frequently yielded no results--which is a limitation of the database that has been made up of whatever deals are going on at the time. To that end, the browse deals function is a reasonably efficient way to sort through what's hot. I'm also a simple creature, and the lack of photos for these items makes it slightly less tantalizing to pick out what I want to eat for the week (for that, the weekly circulars have got it beat). Regardless, I like where this site is going, and until I pick up one of those fridges that tells me what I need to buy before I run out of it, deal hunting will have to do.
[found on Read/Write Web]
"Ikan is a revolutionary new way of shopping for groceries that will change your life!"
Oh, man, not again. Didn't this pitch die in 1950's newsreels?
But wait, is there maybe more here? Ikan is a scanner you put near the trash in your kitchen. As you throw stuff out, you scan its bar code. Then the service makes a list that it can auto-transmit to the grocery store. Very 1950, no?
People are going to keep banging their heads against the grocery business. But it's a very tough market (sorry). Margins are so incredibly low in grocery stores that it's almost impossible to get them to pony up for new consumer-facing technology. Logistics is where the real money is in the food chain.
Amazon.com has a new online grocery service for Seattle residents called Amazon Fresh. Users can pick from an selection of grocery items and have them delivered to their home, or one of the local "pickup centers." The home delivery options come in two flavors--a predawn delivery in a temperature-controlled crate, and a scheduled in-person delivery within a one-hour time slot of your choice. The service is in part the next step to Amazon's "Food and Grocery" section, which contains nearly everything except foods that require refrigeration.
Online grocery shopping is not a new phenomenon. Several services offer regional grocery deliveries, including FreshDirect, SimonDelivers, PinkDot, PeaPod, and the long-defunct Webvan.
Amazon Fresh is currently limited to the Seattle area, and by invitation only. To get an invitation, you can use this request form.
[via TechCrunch]
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