My facebook account with friends and past friends which I've been reconnecting heard me be excited over my iphone and lament over which apps to get - but truthfully I know my favorite, it's the Grocery Gadget App.
Why might you ask?...because it's revolutionizing our husband / wife shopping experience. In the past I had a small dry erase board that I'd write our list - and then I'd transfer it to a master list by store. Like most people you can't get everything you want in one place, and with a younger child and working I never have enough time or energy to get to more than one or possibly two stores.
So often part of the list stays in my purse (and sometimes gets lost) and on the refrigerator for days and sometimes weeks with me thinking "if only" I had those damn dried lentils I could make our favorite Casa Corey Lentil Soup. It's the one that Eli will eat for as many meals as it's in the refrigerator. But do you think - every one has dried lentils? Nope need to go to Whole Foods or Central Market for them.
Then comes my new iphone and multiple evenings searching for the perfect apps. Of course I was searching without knowing much of what I wanted other than email and my todo list to be synced. So over multiple hours over multiple days I continued to download a variety of apps.
The first thing I do when I see a friend with an iphone is ask...what's your favorite apps and why - because regardless of how many times you search through the apps list - since there are over 40,000 you only see a small snapshot.
Grocery Gadget had the best reviews out of all the shopping lists I reviewed - hence why it took so long to find "my apps".
This is what it does - it allows me to create master shopping lists by store - that never go away. So when I go to Trader Joe's, Costco, QFC, Target, Whole Foods, Central Market, Home Depot Office Depot, or Bartells I can get our favorite items with a few taps of my finger as well as not worry if I only made it to one store because the list isn't going to get lost or end up with a piece of Eli's chewed gum on it.
I also created lists for: Groceries Anywhere, Vitamins, & Clothing.Now I know that the makers of this app weren't thinking about stores like Home Depot or Office Depot when they created this app - but the flexibility of the app has revolutionized how we shop.
A week or so ago...Tim sent me a text (which is so easy on the iphone and was a pain in the butt on my piece of crap phone I previously had) "are you at Costco?" How did he know? He had a client meeting up by Costco and was going to pick up some things on the list - mostly because he wouldn't be able to make his famous smoothies in the morning. Yes, as matter of fact I was - he noticed the list was shrinking.
One of the features is that if both of you are on the account (and you can have more than two) as you shop and click off the items the other people simultaneously see it happen. Awesome!
Just last night Tim had pulled out a great recipe for Pasta Bolognesse and headed to the store. Guess what, without asking "do we need anything" cause you know he never reads the dry erase board or simply going to the store to get what he needed and coming back and me saying - "we needed eggs - didn't you see the list?", damn I've got to do a store run so we can make pancakes for breakfast. Eli eats pancakes 5 or more days a week.
Instead...there was a bag of dried lentils, some bulk spices and a few other things sitting on the counter - purchased with no interaction from me, and crossed off the list. Hallelujah I think I could marry the developer, that is if I wasn't already married.
My other favorite features are: you can take a picture of the item - which comes in handy for the wonderful spouse when they can't figure out "yogurt sticks" they can see it. And, there's an extensive list already built into the app so often you can find what you want or alter the text of the item to meet your needs. What you won't find are things like: ream of 22 lb 98 brightness paper, tacks, socks - Eli, cause this app is what it says, groceries.
If you're ready for some more ease in your life do check out Grocery Gadget - it works on a variety of phones and has some great features. Now if I could only monetize my Grocery Gadget love!
Thank you for your super-informative post. You've made my decision on the Grocery app debate. I currently have a magnetic notepad on the side of the fridge, and while I've trained him to write on it - that whole "oops, I forgot it, what do we need again?" thing drives both of us bananas. It's the difference between feeling like you struggle thru everything and feeling like your life is effortless. I'm setting this app up tonight!
Posted by: Kira | December 14, 2009 at 02:56 PM