Our mission

Built to Do Good.

GroceryGret is a shared family grocery list that shows what your list costs at stores near you. This page is about why we're building it, and how.

Why we started

GroceryGret started as something we built for our own family.

There were years when grocery shopping was stressful for us. You walk the aisles adding up prices in your head, and at the register you find out you were off. Something goes back on the shelf because the money isn't there that week.

Things are different for us now. We don't worry about the grocery bill the way we used to. But we haven't forgotten what that felt like, and a lot of families still feel it every week.

So we set out to make grocery shopping a little easier and a little cheaper, whether you have room in the budget or you're trying to make the last $50 last until payday. This isn't charity. It's a tool we think should be useful to anyone who buys groceries.

What we believe

Our philosophy fits in two words: do good. Technology should make people's lives better, not find new ways to take their money. We're a business, and we hope GroceryGret pays for itself. Getting rich isn't why we started it.

You should know what groceries cost before you spend the money

The same groceries can cost noticeably different amounts at stores a few miles apart, and prices change from week to week. Plenty of families already split their shopping, milk at one store and produce at another, because they've learned where things cost less. That takes time and a good memory.

We're not trying to change where you shop. If you love Publix subs, keep buying Publix subs. If there's a Wegmans product you won't give up, we're not here to talk you out of it. We just want you to have better information. GroceryGret compares the items on your list at stores near you, so you can see where they cost less.

The useful parts should be free

The shared family list, price comparison, receipt scanning and points are free, and they're staying free.

A few features cost us money every time someone uses them, mainly the ones that send a photo to an AI service to read it. Those are part of GroceryGret Plus. Every Plus feature is free during the beta and at launch. When Plus starts, it will be $3.99 a month or $19.99 a year, and we'll tell you in the app before it starts charging. We'd rather charge for a few extras than lock up the basics.

Simple beats clever

We've worked hard to keep GroceryGret simple. If a kid wants grapes, they can put grapes on the family list without anyone showing them how. If you're standing in the store, your list is right there when you open the app.

More features don't automatically make a better app. Our goal is to be the easiest grocery list for a family to actually use. That's what we're working toward, and you can tell us how close we are.

Your grocery information should help you

We don't want to be another company that collects your information so it can sell it. Here's how it actually works:

  • Receipt photos stay on your phone. The app reads the text and never uploads the photo.
  • Sharing prices is off until you turn it on. When it's on, a receipt shares the store, the date, the items and their prices, and the first three digits of your ZIP code. Never your name, email, phone number, address, card numbers or the photo.
  • We never sell personal information. We may license combined, anonymous price data. Those combined reports never include your name, contact details or your phone's ID.
  • You can turn sharing off or delete everything from Settings in the app, any time.

The full details are in our privacy policy.

No ads in your way

There are no ads in GroceryGret. You shouldn't have to sit through a video or close a pop-up to get to your own grocery list. The app should work for the person using it, not for an advertiser.

The sale prices you see come from the weekly sale emails stores send, and they show up because they match what's on your list. Nobody pays us to put them there.

Powered by people

We don't copy prices from store websites. The prices in GroceryGret come from people.

When you share a receipt, the prices on it (and nothing about you) become prices other families near you can see. A receipt from Food Lion this morning can help someone across town decide where to shop tomorrow. Every receipt adds a few more prices, so the more people share, the more stores we cover and the fresher the prices get.

We also read the weekly sale prices stores send in their own emails, and an item can show prices shoppers have reported to the public Open Prices database, labeled so you know where they came from.

We want to be straight about where things stand. It's early. Prices are live in North and South Carolina first, and how many you'll see depends on how many people near you share receipts, how well we match the same item across stores, and how recent the prices are. Older prices are marked, and shared prices stop showing after 60 days. Some stores near you may have no prices yet. We'd rather show a gap than a guess. You can see which stores have prices on our prices page.

Technology with a purpose

AI tools have made it possible for a small team to build what used to take a big company. We want to use that for everyday families.

One example is the fridge scan. Take photos of your fridge, freezer and pantry when they're stocked, and GroceryGret learns the things you usually keep. Before your next trip, snap new photos and it suggests what looks low or missing. It won't catch everything and it can misread a label, so you check every suggestion before anything changes your list. Recipes work in a similar way: photograph one, and the ingredients you need go on the list.

Photos are only sent when you use one of these features, the app asks before the first time, and the photos aren't stored. Reading receipts doesn't use AI at all. Our own receipt reader handles that and checks every line against the receipt's totals.

AI is one of the tools we use. It isn't the point. The point is a grocery trip that takes less time and costs less.

Our promise

  • The shared list, price comparison and receipt scanning stay free.
  • We never sell your personal information.
  • No ads between you and your list.
  • We show how fresh a price is, and we'd rather show no price than a guess.
  • We keep it simple.
  • We read every message you send us.

Help us build something better

GroceryGret gets better when people use it and tell us what's wrong. If you'd like to help:

  • Try it with your family and see if it makes the week a little easier.
  • Share receipts if you're comfortable with it. Turn on sharing in Settings, scan your receipt, and those prices help families near you. You earn points for it too.
  • Tell us when something's off: a price that looks wrong, a receipt read badly, a screen that confused you. Write to support@grocerygret.com or use Report a bug in the app's Settings.

Nobody has to share anything to use GroceryGret. If you do, thank you. We'll work to make it worth it.

In beta now · on the App Store November 2

Join the beta See how it works

More about the app on our about page.