GroCheap

In today's poor economy, many Canadian shoppers are faced with stress from elevated grocery prices. GroCheap intends to solve that issue by letting users compare prices from groceries online.

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Inspiration

The economy sucks, and EVERYONE's complaining about grocery prices being sky-high! So, where the heck do you shop for cheap stuff?

What it does

By scraping the web for grocery prices, we store them in a database and then can fetch them at any time to check for prices.

How we built it

We started with the database, built the API, built the scrapers, and finally, the frontend.

Challenges we ran into

merge conflicts, javascript, spending like 4 hours on the scraping

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have actually finished the app!

What we learned

We've learnt a lot about databases, API calls, and web scraping. We also learnt that scraping the web for data is not as easy as we thought as there are some things that websites may do to limit scraping.

What's next for GroCheap

We're hoping to get a more scalable DB setup. Right now, SQLite is more for prototyping so it would be great to have something like PostgreSQL... We'd also like to integrate meal planning or recipe help as a big part of saving money on groceries also involves planning meals so as to not waste food. You could make like a recipe price calculator by adding some items you found online and then calculate the portions maybe? So many ideas to grow on. Something else that would be really cool would be to do some data analytics and track the evolution of grocery prices for everyone to see :0

So many ideas that could be game-changing for how people approach grocery shopping! GroCheap could evolve from being a price comparison tool to a full-fledged grocery assistant, helping users make smarter choices not just by saving money but by promoting sustainable shopping habits and reducing food waste.

Integrating features like dynamic shopping lists based on user preferences, dietary needs, or even leftover ingredients would be another natural progression. This could tie into a broader ecosystem where users not only track prices but also maximize the value of what they buy—turning groceries into meals with minimal waste.

Additionally, building a community aspect into GroCheap could amplify its impact. Imagine forums or shared recipes where users share cost-saving tips, deals, or meal ideas, leveraging collective wisdom to make the platform even more valuable.

The possibilities are endless, and with the right vision and tech stack, GroCheap has the potential to become an indispensable tool for anyone trying to navigate the complexities of modern grocery shopping. 🚀

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