Flixoft, maker of the popular Grocery Gadget app, took to the Macworld 2011 show floor to preview its forthcoming sequel: Grocery Chatter.
The new app will help you comparison shop for your groceries before you even leave the house. Flixoft says that unlike other popular price-comparison apps that rely exclusively on Google for data, Grocery Chatter actually compares current prices at grocery stores near you.
The app determines local prices through multiple means, including some feeds directly from supermarkets. You can check price trends and histories, and then add individual items—picked from the most economical store—to your shopping list.
Grocery Chatter will function as a separate app from Grocery Gadget, because Flixot “didn’t want to clutter one app with too much,” President and CEO Anatoliy Babayev told Macworld. When you tap to add an item to your shopping list from Grocery Chatter, it will switch to Grocery Gadget. And if you want to compare prices in Grocery Gadget, you’ll jump back to Grocery Chatter.
The “Chatter” in Grocery Chatter comes from the app’s planned socially-driven elements. Users will be able to review individual items, and also report on special sale prices they discover that the app doesn’t know about. That way, if enough users report a great deal on toilet paper, you’ll know about it pretty quickly.
Because it relies on real prices from supermarkets near you, Babayev says, “Stores may not be happy—but we serve the customer.”
The app, which will be free, should appear in the App Store in early February.