I may not be your target market, but here's my thinking. I tend to associate Groceries w/ JIT. Usually, I buy it just in time to get fresh produce and when things in my fridge reach a low threshold. So the idea of tracking prices and trying to optimize my buying process looks a bit much and there's too much involved. On the other hand, if you are able to compare the prices of most common produce at real time from nearby stores, that may be useful. For example, you could even fill in a sample grocery list for a particular family profile and compare the prices seamlessly, I would definitely use it.
- Most people see the value of real-time cross-store comparisons
There have been other apps & services that have tried to solve this problem, but I think that the "great filter" is making price tracking valuable to a single user in a single store. Before you get a network of people contributing prices, you need a set of people who are willing to contribute on their own. I am currently trying to test if such people exist :)
Some people maintain "price books" of prices they see in stores, and they claim that historical records of prices let them predict sales.
Right now my tests are suggesting that such people are few and far between, so I think that this might be a fail-fast type situation.
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My 2 cents.
After talking to a lot of people, I agree that:
- Most people treat groceries as JIT
- Most people see the value of real-time cross-store comparisons
There have been other apps & services that have tried to solve this problem, but I think that the "great filter" is making price tracking valuable to a single user in a single store. Before you get a network of people contributing prices, you need a set of people who are willing to contribute on their own. I am currently trying to test if such people exist :)
Some people maintain "price books" of prices they see in stores, and they claim that historical records of prices let them predict sales.
Right now my tests are suggesting that such people are few and far between, so I think that this might be a fail-fast type situation.