[griffman]

We try our best -- I updated my apps yesterday, just before this was published, in order to prevent such issues. However, since that check yesterday, there are now three updated shopping apps.

It's just impossible to keep up -- we basically have to write about what we have at the time we have it, make a last-minute check, publish, and then know it'll probably be wrong within a day or two. As the store matures, this will be less of an issue, of course. But as it stands now, there are 3,500 "version 1.0" apps out there, all rife for updates :).

-rob.

[MtnBiker]

I've been waiting for this review. I looking for a replacement for jShopper which I used on my Palm.
One key feature for me isn't on your list. I want to be able to add an item to more than one list/store. For example, I can buy toothpaste at the grocery store or at a discount store. Do you have that information? Grocery Gadget doesn't seem to have this feature.
I'm not too price sensitive, it's building the initial list and setting up the stores that has slowed me from pursuing this.
I just wrote the developer, but am not optimistic as the site seems to have not been updated lately.

[griffman]

I'm not sure I completely understand the question, but ... Grocery Gadget (and others that support multiple lists) will definitely allow you to add the same item to different lists. I just tested with Grocery Gadget, and added "Tomatoes" to three lists I set up ... so you could create a "Grocery" list and a "Discount" list, and then put toothpaste on both.

However, these lists are independent -- if you buy it at the Grocery, you'll have to remove it manually from the Discount list.

Is that what you were asking?

-rob.

[MtnBiker]

"However, these lists are independent -- if you buy it at the Grocery, you'll have to remove it manually from the Discount list. "

I want the lists to be dependent. This saves work. If I'm at the grocery and buy tomatoes I don't want to search every other list I might have added it to.

Thanks for answering.

I think this clarifies what I'm looking for. As I said jShopper has this on the Palm.

[griffman]

So you want multiple lists without having the items be independent on each list ... I'll have to go back through the collection and see if any of them can pull that off. SplashShopper might be able to do it, but I'm not positive. I'll try to get to this, but it probably won't be today.

-rob.

[MtnBiker]

Thanks. I just wrote Grocery IQ and MidCentury to see if they had this feature. From a quick look at their feature list they didn't.

[sarbs58]

Rob, as always I think your reviews offer a lot of insight into buying otherwise "blind items." I understand that you can't include every single app from whatever category you are reviewing. Generally, you give us a good range of price points, but I really think that this review should have included Apple's Pick of the Week, "Grocery IQ." I jumped the gun in purchasing that App myself, since it was on sale and since Apple gave it such praise. But with all the hype around it and extra attention it receives/d, I'm surprised you didn't include it here. Sorry, just wanted to make that point.

[griffman]

Grocery IQ was on my short list, and just missed out on final inclusion. At the end of the day, I found the interface just a bit too complex for what should ideally be something that's really simple to use. But it's got a great feature set, and the in-program help is definitely helpful.

-rob.

[Stewmac]

Price compassion of groceries & other items at different stores
Do any of these or others do that?
Used to use "Price-It" on Palm to do this, but haven't found a iphone app that does.
Stewart

[sheilanolan]

I'm pretty sure I can do that with SplashShopper by using one grocery list for all stores and then sorting by item. That way, I can see which store is cheapest.

[chinadolls]

How do you sync stickies to your phone?

[MtnBiker]

Both developers responded. Ambiguous responses, but both working in the direction of multiple or dependent lists. MidCentury shopper, "likely" have fully dependent items in future updates. Grocery IQ will have multiple lists in 1.1, but didn't answer dependency question. I didn't follow up.

jShopper also responded and said he had no plans for an iPhone app since their was too much competition. Too bad, because it's a great app.

[MLove]

I have the same issue as MthBiker. I need to add items once and apply them to different stores.

I currently use HandyShopper on my Palm smartphone. I am looking for a replacement shopping list for my iPod touch as the HS creator has no plans to port over his program.

I have a lot of different kinds of stores listed, including:
- Drug (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, etc.)
- Warehouse (Costco, Sam's Club. etc.)
- Grocery
- Department
- Office Supplies
- Discount (Target, WalMart, etc.)
- On-line

Using MthBiker's toothpaste example, I would buy it at a Drug, Warehouse, Grocery or Discount store. Toothpaste is one item in my "All" master (reusable) shopping database, assigned to those 4 different stores. When I am ready to go shopping, I click the "Need" button and get the list of every item I have marked as needing to buy. I then have the option of seeing what i need in "All Stores" or I can narrow down the list to the particular store I am going to visit.

If I choose Grocery, I only see the items that I would buy in a grocery store and not items like perfume, that I would buy at a Department store. This way, I do not have to maintain separate lists or skip over items that don't apply to the current store and possibly miss buying an item that does apply. If I check off toothpaste at the grocery, it is checked off for the entire shopping list. If I go to a Discount store the next day, toothpaste is no longer on my "Need" list.

HS has other helpful features, that this is the most important for me. (I also need the ability to have multiple lists/databases, as I also use a separate HS database for packing.) Has anyone run across a shopping/list program that can do this?

[sheilanolan]

In SplashShopper you can create a master shopping list and then assign a store to individual items. When you've marked items as "needed" you can chose to sort the list by store which sounds like what you're after. You can also create custom lists so you could have a packaging list. The current version of SplashShopper allows you to do all this within the iPhone app although it's much easier to use the desktop version and then sync wirelessly to the iphone.