APPS

What I’d Want From a Grocery Shopping List App

I’ve tried quite a few but none come close

This doesn’t begin to cut it. Screenshot by author

I do half of the grocery shopping at our house. Well, maybe three quarters of it because I go with my wife when she goes to pick out produce and other things that she wants to see and touch herself.

She uses a list she types into the Notes app on her phone. It’s wrong sometimes because she forgets to remove things she has already bought or forgets what was already in the refrigerator, but this is the way she prefers to do it, so to each their own.

I use the ToDo reminder app. I detest it. It barely begins to meet my needs and is irritating in several ways, but everything else I’ve tried is just as bad or worse. Given what is possible on our hand held computing devices today, this paucity of features is disgusting.

What I want

First up, the ability to create and search a list of grocery items we buy. I need the typical stuff: how many, where to buy it, when to buy it. Any shopping/reminder/todo app can do that, though few even do that minimum very well.

I need the app to be able to tell me two very important things: when I last bought it and how often I buy it. I have to do that manually, but there’s no reason it can’t be done…