Grocery iQ: Nearly Perfect iPhone/iPod Touch App

The idea behind Grocery iQ is a very simple concept:  put your shopping list on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  But as many things, the beauty is in the details.

Grocery iQ lets you search a database of over 100,000 items, either by keyword or UPC barcode, and add them to your list.  You can also keep track of the items you purchase regularly in your Favorites.  You can also group certain items by store, such as Publix or Sam’s Club, or leave them in a general “Any Store” list.  Each item can be assigned an aisle, and if it is found in the database, the aisle is automatically assigned.  You can also rearrange the aisles at each store to match your local store’s exact layout.

As a real world example, my wife, Marce, and I used to have a paper shopping list with a magnet on the refrigerator.  We would add items to the list as they ran out, and by the end of the week, we would have a pretty complete list of what we need to buy.  You can already see the problem with this, and as you suspect, at least half of the time, we would go to the grocery store and forget the list at home.  We would inevitably forget 2 or 3 really important items (toilet paper!), and we’d have to go back out again.

With Grocery iQ, whenever we think of something, I just pull out my iPhone and add it to the corresponding list.  If it’s something I think we will purchase again, I’ll add it to the Favorites.  When we’re at the store, I just check each item off as it’s added to the cart.  When all of the items are checked off, it automatically prompts me to “Check Out” and clear the current list.  The best part is that it keeps a complete history of all of the items ever added to the list, so if I forget an item, or just don’t feel like typing it out again, I just go through the history and add it to the list.

Bonus Features:

I don’t really use any of these options, but for anyone who is interested, you can also:

• Email the current list to any email address (great if you’re having a party and someone asks if you need anything from the store)
• Include the exact price of items in the item description, which it will use to keep track of the total amount in your cart
• Attach notes to items (“the red, not the white!”)

Feature Requests:

I said Grocery iQ was nearly perfect.  Here are the features I’ve seen in other apps that, in my opinion, would make it entirely perfect:

• Over-the-air synchronizing to other iPhones/iPod Touches
• Over-the-air synchronizing to a free web portal (so Marce can add items from home, and they will automatically be added to my list at the store – no need for an “oh, this too” phone call or text message)
• UPC barcode scanning to add items or check them off of the list

Overall, Grocery iQ is an incredible deal at just $0.99.

Buy Grocery iQ now at the iTunes Store (opens iTunes and links directly to product page)

or

Learn more at GroceryIQ.com