Tesco Puts Spotlight On Its Supermarket Shelves
11:12 am, October 16th, 2009, Giles Turnbull
Back in July this year, I wrote a short scribble on my personal site listing a handful of ideas for iPhone apps.
The first was something I called “Supermarket Spotlight”, and it was described thus:
“Like Spotlight on your Mac, but for supermarkets in meatspace. You tell it that you’re in Tesco in Trowbridge, then start typing in the product you’re after. It tells you: ‘Aisle 12, section 2, top shelf, on the right if you’ve got your back to the cash tills.’ Either that, or it simply does the augmented reality thing and takes you there, beeping louder as you get closer, like a geiger counter.”
I never expected anyone to actually make it.
But blimey, someone has. And it’s Tesco, no less.
Their new app, Tesco Finder, does almost exactly the thing I described. It uses your phone’s location to determine where your nearest Tesco stores are, and gives you a list to choose from. Store specified, you just type a product name and off you go.
What’s funny is the App Store comments from Tesco staff, pointing out that this actually works better than the gadgets they’re given for using in-store.
Commenters also have plenty of good ideas for future extra features: prices would be good, and stock levels (you could find out there’s none of your favorite wine left before trekking across the store to fetch it), and this would be fun: upload a shopping list, and let the iPhone guide you round the whole store, satnav style, to get to all your stuff via the fastest and most efficient route.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Reviews, Software, iPhone | Comment on this article
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Pretty cool stuff. Too bad I can’t get a signal inside of my local grocery stores.
Scott, on October 16th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Wow I’m surprised Tesco approved the development of this app. I thought supermarkets and basically any retail store want you to linger as long as possible in the hopes that something else might catch your eye and that you’ll impulsively buy.
Stack, on October 16th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I spent two months in Budapest and shopped the Tesco there frequently as well as Ocean, a French chain. That entailed a fairly substantial bus ride as we did not have a car. It would have been great to do the basic shopping online and just pay and go from there. Delivery might be a good option but I’m chastened by the recollection of the Internet start up that failed so miserably in the US. Still, netgrocer.com seems to be alive, well and delivering to doors (FedEx) and even APOs.
In short, I hope and believe that this is just scratching the surface.
Frank Lowney, on October 17th, 2009 at 3:26 pm